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LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

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^^^^^^*  founded  by 

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and 
HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 


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JOHN  E.  KEMSBURG 


Six 
Historic   Americans 


PAINE,    JEFFERSON 

WASHINGTON,     FRANKLIN 

LINCOLN,    GRANT 

The    Fathers    and    Saviors 

of  Our   Republic, 

Freethinkers 

By    JOHN    E.    REMSBURG 


New  Yobk 
THE  TRUTH  SEEKER  COMPANY, 

FOBTY-NINB  VESEY   STRiaBT, 


Affectionately  Inscribed 

to 

My  Daughter. 

REULLURA   R.    HARNESS 


CONTENTS 

Preface 

Indorsement  by  Robert  G.  inqersou- 

Introduction 

Thomas  Paine 

Thomas  Jeffersom 

George  Washtngtow 

Benjamin  Franklin 

Conclusion 

PART   Tl 

Abraham  Lincoln 
Ulysses  S.  Grant 


PREFACE. 

Were  the  American  people  asked  to  name  the 
five  great  historic  figures  of  the  first  century  of 
our  national  existence — the  illustrious  men  who 
contributed  most  to  build  and  glorify  the  United 
States  of  America — the  answer  would  be,  George 
Washington,  Benjamin  Franklin,  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son, Abraham  Lincoln,  and  Ulysses  S.  Grant. 

To  this  list  of  immortals  posterity  will  add 
another — Thomas  Paine.  For  nearly  a  century 
this  noble  man — the  real  founder  of  our  Republic 
— has  been  buried  beneath  the  stones  of  obloquy. 
But  slowly  the  angels  of  Justice  are  rolling  back 
these  stones  from  his  sepulchre,  and  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Thomas  Paine  is  at  hand. 

While  the  orthodox  clergy,  to  their  everlasting 
shame,  are  responsible  for  the  cruel  treatment  ac- 
corded this  patriot,  the  liberal  Christian  minis- 
ters, to  their  eternal  honor,  have  been  candid  and 
courageous  enough  to  do  him  justice.  These  are 
but  a  few  of  their  many  tributes  to  him : 

Rev.  John  Snyder: — "Paine  did  more  than  any 


Yiii  PREFACE. 

other  single  man  to  create  this  nation.  I  simply 
speak  what  will  some  day  be  the  sober  judgment 
of  history." 

Rev.  Solomon  Southwick:— "Had  Thomas 
Paine  been  a  Grecian  or  Roman  patriot  in  olden 
times,  and  performed  the  same  services  as  he  did 
for  this  country,  he  would  have  had  the  honor  of 
an  apotheosis.  The  Pantheon  would  have  been 
opened  to  him,  and  we  should  at  this  day  regard 
his  memory  with  the  same  veneration  that  we  do 
that  of  Socrates  and  Cicero." 

Rev.  Minot  J.  Savage,  D.  D.:— "No  man  ren- 
dered grander  service  to  this  country;  no  man 
ought  to  be  more  cherished  or  remembered." 

Dr.  Moncure  D.  Conway:— "Above  all,  Paine 
was  a  profoundly  religious  man — one  of  the  few 
in  our  Revolutionary  era  of  whom  it  can  be  said 
that  his  delight  was  in  the  law  of  his  Lord,  and 
in  that  law  did  he  meditate  day  and  night.  Con- 
sequently, he  could  not  escape  the  immemorial 
fate  of  the  great  believers,  to  be  persecuted  for 
unbelief — by  unbelievers." 

Rev.  Theodore  Parker:— "He  did  more  to  pro- 
mote piety  and  morality  among  men  than  a  hun- 
dred ministers  of  that  age  in  America." 

Rev.  Dr.  David  Swing:— "Paine  was  one  of  che 
best  and  grandest  men  that  ever  trod  the  planet." 

Rev.  O.  B.  Frothingham:— "No  private  charac- 


PREFACE.  IX 

ter  has  been  more  foully  calumniated  in  the  name 
of  God  than  that  of  Thomas  Paine." 

Rev.  James  Kay  Applebee: — "I  see  Thomas 
Paine  as  he  looms  up  in  history — a  great,  grand 
figure.  The  reputation  bigots  have  created  for 
him  fades  away,  even  as  the  creeds  for  which  they 
raved  and  lied,  fade  away;  but  distinct  and  lu- 
minous, there  remains  the  noble  character  of 
Paine  created  by  himself." 

Dr.  John  E.  Roberts: — "So  long  as  human 
rights  are  sacred  and  their  defenders  held  in 
grateful  remembrance;  so  long  as  liberty  has  a 
flag  flung  to  the  skies,  a  sanctuary  in  the  hearts  of 
men,  so  long,  upon  the  eternal  granite  of  history, 
luminous  as  light  and  imperishable  as  the  stars, 
will  be  engraven  the  name  of  Thomas  Paine." 

The  Church  claims  all  great  men.  But  the 
truth  is  the  great  men  of  all  nations  have,  for  the 
most  part,  rejected  Christianity.  Of  these  six  his- 
toric Americans — the  six  greatest  men  that  have 
lived  on  this  Continent — not  one  was  a  Christian. 
All  were  unbelievers — all  Infidels — all  Free- 
thinkers. 

It  is  popularly  supposed  that  Paine  was  a  very 
irreligious  man,  while  Washington,  Franklin,  Jef- 
ferson, Lincoln  and  Grant  were  very  religious. 
The  reverse  of  this  is  more  nearly  true.  Paine, 
although  not  a  Christian,  was  a  deeply  religious 


X  PREFACE. 

man;  while  the  others,  though  practicing  the 
loftiest  morals,  cared  little  for  religion.  Paine 
was  a  firm  believer  in  the  religion  of  Deism,  and 
a  zealous  advocate^  of  it;  the  others,  while  nomi- 
nally Deists,  and  using  the  conventional  language 
of  Deism,  were  probably  more  nearly  Agnostics 
in  belief. 

Washington  and  Grant,  while  unbelievers,  at- 
tended church  and  retained  the  good  will  of  the 
clergy.  Franklin  avowed  his  disbelief,  but  in  a 
friendly  spirit  which  provoked  few  censures. 
Jefferson  and  Lincoln  both  talked  and  wrote 
against  Christianity,  but  Lincoln's  criticisms 
were  never  published,  while  Jefferson's,  scattered 
through  several  volumes,  are  little  read.  The  re- 
jection of  Christianity  by  these  men  has  been,  to 
a  great  extent,  forgotten  or  forgiven. 

Paine  not  only  opposed  Christianity,  but  he  op- 
posed it  in  a  book  which  was  read  by  thousands, 
and  which  the  defenders  of  Christianity  could  not 
answer.  For  this  he  was  persecuted  while  living 
and  calumniated  when  dead. 

In  this  volume  is  presented  the  evidence  of  the 
disbelief  of  these  great  men.  The  first  part  entitled 
**The  Fathers  of  Our  Republic,"  deals  with  the  re- 
ligious views  of  Paine,  Jefferson,  Washington,  and 
Franklin.  The  basis  of  it  is  an  address  delivered 
before  the  tenth  annual  Congress  of  the  Ameri- 


PREFACE.  XI 

can  Secular  Union,  in  Chickering  Hall,  New  York, 
November  13,  1886,  at  which  Colonel  Ingersoll 
presided.  The  second  part,  entitled,  "The  Saviors 
of  Our  Republic,"  deals  with  the  religious  opin- 
ions of  Lincoln  and  Grant.  The  matter  pertain- 
ing to  Lincoln  was  published  in  1893.  It  consti- 
tutes the  larger  portion  of  the  work.  For  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  following  Lincoln's  death  there 
was  a  fierce  controversy  respecting  his  belief,  and 
the  testimony  called  out  by  this  controversy  was 
quite  voluminous.  Grant,  in  regard  to  his  re- 
ligious opinions,  maintained  that  silence  so  char- 
acteristic of  him  and  little  was  known  or  said 
respecting  them, 

Marcn^im.  J,  E.  B» 


THE 

FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC: 

PAINE, 

JEFFERSON,  WASHINGTON. 

FRANKLIN 


INDORSEMENT    BY  ROBERT    G. 
INGERSOLL. 

My  Dear  Remsburg:  Accept  my  thanks  for 
"The  Fathers  of  Our  Eepublic."  I  was  greatly 
interested  in  the  lecture,  and  at  the  time  I  heard 
it  hoped  it  would  be  issued  in  book  form.  You 
have  done  a  good  work,  and  have  done  it  well. 
Your  facts  are  stated  in  an  admirable  way,  and 
your  conclusions  justly  and  naturally  drawn.  The 
pamphlet  will  do  great  good.  The  minds  of  thou- 
sands will  be  disabused.  It  has  been,  and  still 
is,  the  business  of  most  ministers  and  priests  to 
show  that  all  the  great  dead — the  patriots,  scien- 
tists and  philosophers — were  small  enough  and 
ignorant  enough,  and  hypocritical  enough,  to  pre- 
tend to  be  what  they  were  not,  and  tc;  believe 
what  they  did  not. 

R.  G.  iNGERSOLL. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Associated  with  the  formation  of  our  Repub- 
lic are  four  names  that  deserve  and  will  obtain  a 
more  enduring  fame  than  others:  Thomas  Paine, 
Thomas  Jefferson,  George  Washington,  and  Ben- 
jamin Franklin. 

It  was  Paine  who  first  proposed  American  Inde- 
pendence, and  prepared  the  public  mind  for  its 
acceptance.  To  Jefferson  was  assigned  the  task, 
and  to  him  has  been  accorded  the  honor,  of  for- 
mulating the  political  document  whose  adoption 
by  the  Continental  Congress  proclaimed  our  Na- 
tion's birth.  This  was  followed  by  a  war  of  Revo- 
lution, and  the  central  figure,  the  leader,  in  this 
momentous  struggle,  was  Washington.  Yet  skill- 
ful and  sagacious  as  this  commander  was,  brave 
and  patriotic  as  his  soldiers  were,  the  recognition 
and  assistance  of  a  foreign  power  was  necessary 
to  insure  success. 

This  was  secured;  England's  great  rival, 
France,  came  to  the  rescue,  and  the  contest  was 
decided  in  our  favor.  To  the  untiring  labors  of 
Franklin  was  this  achievement  due.    Thus  these 

17 


18  INTRODUCTION. 

men  stand  forth— Paine  the  Author-Hero,  Jef- 
ferson the  Statesman-Hero,  Washington  the  Sol- 
dier-Hero, and  Franklin  the  Diplomatic-Hero  of 
the  I?evolution. 

Every  event  in  the  lives  of  these  illustrious  men, 
every  element  in  their  characters,  has  become  a 
subject  of  surpassing  interest.  There  is  one  theme 
connected  with  their  history  upon  which  I  propose 
to  dwell,  and  that  is  the  question  of  their  religious 
beliefs.    Few  questions  are  so  little  understood. 

The  world  has  been  cursed  with  two  great  evils, 
kingcraft  and  priestcraft.  Kingcraft,  in  this 
country,  has  been  destroyed;  priestcraft  remains 
— a  parasitic  army  preying  upon  our  body  politic. 
Founded  upon  fraud,  the  clerical  profession,  with 
mnny  honorable  exceptions,  depends  upon  fraud 
for  its  support.  One  of  its  methods  I  shall  expose 
Iq  this  work.  While  pretending  to  ignore  reason, 
and  intellectuality,  and  worldly  greatness,  its 
members  yet  realize  the  importance  of  having  the 
intellectual  Titans  and  the  popular  heroes  of  the 
world  upon  their  side.  "Great  men  may  gain 
nothing  from  religion,  but  religion  can  gain  much 
from  great  men,"  said  the  theological  buzzard  that 
daily  perched  himself  beside  the  dying  Grant.  At 
the  same  time  they  realize  the  humiliating  fact 
that  it  is  for  the  most  part  the  dwarfs,  and  not  the 
giants  of  the  world,  that  train  with  them.    One 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

of  their  number,  more  honest  than  his  fellows, 
says :  "The  great  and  the  wise  and  the  mighty  are 
not  with  us.  These  men,  the  master-minds  and 
imperial  leaders  among  men,  are  outside  our  most 
Christian  church."  As  Saladin  observes,  "The 
church  would  give  ten  millions  of  her  blockheads 
for  the  adherence  and  support  of  one  man  strong 
enough  to  hew  his  name  imperishably  upon  the 
mountain  of  adamant  into  which  are  cut  the 
names  of  the  immortals."  And  thus,  recognizing 
the  magic  influence  that  a  great  name  carries  with 
it,  the  clergy  have  inscribed  in  the  Christian  ros- 
ter the  names  of  hundreds  who  were  total  disbe- 
lievers in  their  dogmas.  As  the  venders  of  quack 
nostrums  attach  the  forged  certificates  of  distin- 
guished individuals  to  their  worthless  drugs,  to 
make  them  sell,  so  these  theological  venders  pre- 
sent the  manufactured  endorsements  of  the  great 
to  make  their  nostrums  popular.  Jefferson,  Wash- 
ington, and  Franklin  have  all  been  denominated 
Christians,  not  because  they  were  such,  for  they 
were  not,  but  because  of  the  influence  that  at- 
taches to  their  names. 

Paine's  opposition  to  priestcraft  was  too  pro- 
nounced and  too  well  known  to  claim  him  as  an 
adherent  of  their  faith,  and  so  they  have  sought 
to  destroy  his  influence  by  destroying  his  good 
name.    Not  only  this,  knowing  the  prejudice  that 


3^  INTRODUCTION. 

has  prevailed  against  Atheism,  they  have  rux^srep- 
resented  his  theological  opinions  and  declared 
him  an  Atheist. 


THOMAS    PAINE 


THOMAS  PAINE 


THOMAS  PAINE. 

The  religious  opinions  of  no  other  man  have 
been  so  greatly  misrepresented  and  so  little  un- 
derstood as  those  of  Thomas  Paine.  Orthodox 
Christians  have,  almost  with  the  same  breath,  de- 
clared that  he  died  an  unrepentant  Atheist  and  a 
convert  to  Christianity.  A  presentation  of  his  re- 
ligious views,  as  expressed  in  his  writings  and 
witnessed  by  his  friends,  will  clearly  establish  the 
negative  of  the  following: 

1.  Was  Paine  an  Atheist? 

2.  Was  he  a  Christian? 

3.  Did  he  recant? 

WAS  PAINE  AN  ATHEIST 

The  President  of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Roose- 
velt, has  characterized  Thomas  Paine  as  an  Athe- 
ist. ''Strong  religious  minds  are  not  likely  to  be 
affected  by  the  Atheism  of  Paine,"  recently  wrote 
a  Western  journalist.  Another  writer,  discussing 
the  authorship  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, contended  that  Paine  could  not  have  writ- 
ten that  document  because  it  acknowledged  the 

36 


26  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

existence  of  a  Creator.  Ask  almost  any  orthodox 
Christian  if  Paine  believed  in  a  Supreme  Being 
and  he  will  tell  you  that  he  did  not. 

Now  could  these  persons  overcome  their  preju- 
dice so  far  as  to  read  a  single  page  of  Paine's 
theological  writings  they  would  be  ashamed  of 
their  ignorance  (I  use  the  word  not  in  reproach, 
but  in  charity)  and  amazed  at  the  dishonesty  of 
their  religious  teachers  who  are  responsible  for 
this  ignorance.  A  more  devout  believer  in  God 
and  immortality  never  lived  than  Thomas  Paine. 
In  no  other  works  are  the  terms  God  and  Crea- 
tor used  more  frequently,  or  in  a  more  reverential 
manner,  than  in  his.  In  his  "Age  of  Reason,"  the 
work  that  brought  down  upon  his  devoted  head 
the  wrath  of  almost  the  entire  Christian  priest- 
hood, the  recognition  of  a  Supreme  Being  is  made 
more  than  two  hundred  times. 

On  the  first  page  of  this  book  appears  his  creed, 
and  his  creed  begins  with  these  words: 

"I  believe  in  one  God,  and  no  more;  and  I  hope 
for  happiness  beyond  this  life." 

In  summing  up  his  arguments  in  tne  first  part 
of  this  work,  he  says: 

"The  moral  duty  of  man  consists  in  imitating 
the  moral  goodness  and  beneficence  of  God  mani- 
fested in  the  creation  toward  all  his  creatures. 
That  seeing,  as  we  daily  do,  the  goodness  of  God 


THOMAS  PAINE.  27 

to  all  men,  it  is  an  example  calling  upon  all  men 
to  practice  the  same  toward  each  other." 

A  concluding  paragraph  of  the  second  part 
reads  as  follows: 

"Were  man  impressed  as  fully  and  as  strongly 
as  he  ought  to  be  with  the  belief  of  a  God,  his 
moral  life  would  be  regulated  by  the  force  of  that 
belief;  he  would  stand  in  awe  of  God  and  of  him- 
self, and  would  not  do  the  thing  that  could  not  be 
concealed  from  either.     .  .  .  This  is  Deism." 

When  Paine  commenced  his  "Age  of  Reason," 
he  was  fifty-six.  The  first  great  product  of  his 
brain,  "Common  Sense,"  was  written  when  he 
was  thirty-eight.  In  this  work  a  recognition  of 
God  is  expressed  on  almost  every  page!  He  died 
at  the  age  of  seventy-two.  His  will  begins  with 
these  words:  "Reposing  confidence  in  my  Creator, 
God."  It  ends  as  follow:  "I  die  in  perfect  com- 
posure and  resignation  to  the  will  of  my  Creator, 
God." 

Respecting  a  future  existence,  he  says: 

"I  trouble  not  myself  about  the  manner  of  fu- 
ture existence.  I  content  myself  with  believing, 
even  to  positive  conviction,  that  the  power  that 
gave  me  existence  is  able  to  continue  it  in  any 
form  and  manner  he  pleases,  either  with  or  with- 
out this  body"  (Age  of  Reason). 

"I  consider  myself  in  the  hands  of  my  Creator, 


28  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

and  that  he  will  dispose  of  me  after  this  life  con- 
sistently with  his  justice  and  goodness"  (Pri- 
vate Thoughts  on  a  Future  State). 

Paine  was  one  of  the  founders  and  most  active 
members  of  the  Society  of  Theophilanthropists 
(lovers  of  God  and  man,)  which  existed  in  Paris 
during  and  after  the  French  Revolution.  Upon 
their  altars  was  this  inscription: 

"We  believe  in  the  existence  of  a  God,  and  in 
the  immortality  of  the  soul." 

The  "Age  of  Reason,"  instead  of  being  an  Athe- 
istic work,  as  popularly  supposed,  was  written  to 
oppose  Atheism.  In  a  letter  to  Samuel  Adams, 
Paine  says:  "The  people  of  France  were  running 
headlong  into  Atheism,  and  I  had  the  work  trans- 
lated into  their  own  language,  to  stop  them  in 
that  career,  and  fix  them  in  the  first  article  of 
every  man's  creed,  who  has  any  creed  at  all — I 
believe  in  God." 

WAS  PAINE  A  CHRISTIAN? 

The  evidences  of  Paine's  disbelief  in  Christian- 
ity, as  a  revealed  religion,  are  irrefutable,  as 
shown  by  the  following  extracts  from  his  writ- 
ings: 

"I  do  not  believe  in  the  creed  professed  by  the 
Jewish  church,  by  the  Roman  church,  by 
the  Greek  church,  by  the  Turkish  church,  by  the 


THOMAS  PAINE.  29 

Protestant  church,  nor  by  any  church  that  I  know 
of.  My  own  mind  is  my  own  church"  (Age  of 
Reason). 

"All  national  institutions  of  churches,  whether 
Jewish,  Christian,  or  Turkish,  appear  to  me  no 
other  than  human  inventions  set  up  to  terrify  and 
enslave  mankind,  and  monopolize  power  and 
profit"    (Ibid.). 

"Each  of  these  churches  shows  certain  books, 
which  they  call  revelation,  or  the  word  of  God. 
The  Jews  say  that  their  word  of  God  was  given 
by  God  to  Moses,  face  to  face;  the  Christians  say 
that  their  word  of  God  came  by  divine  inspira- 
tion; and  the  Turks  say  that  their  word  of  God, 
the  Koran,  was  brought  by  an  angel  from  heaven. 
Each  of  these  churches  accuses  the  others 
of  unbelief;  and,  for  my  own  part,  I  disbelieve 
them  all"  (Ibid.). 

"But  some  perhaps  will  say,  Are  we  to  have  no 
word  of  God,  no  revelation?  I  answer.  Yes;  there 
is  a  word  of  God;  there  is  a  revelation. 

"The  word  of  God  is  the  creation  we  behold 

It  is  only  in  the  creation  that  all  our  ideas  and 
conceptions  of  a  word  of  God  can  unite.  The  cre- 
ation speaketh  an  universal  language,  independ- 
ently of  human  speech,  or  human  language,  mul- 
tiplied and  various  as  they  be.  It  is  an  ever-exist- 
ing original,  which  every  man  can  read.     It  can- 


30  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

not  be  forged;  it  cannot  be  counterfeited;  it  can- 
not be  lost;  it  cannot  be  altered;  it  cannot  be  sup- 
pressed. It  does  not  depend  upon  the  will  of  man 
whether  it  shall  be  published  or  not;  it  publishes 
itself  from  one  end  of  the  earth  to  the  other.  It 
preaches  to  all  nations  and  to  all  worlds;  and  this 
word  of  God  reveals  to  man  all  that  is  necessary 
for  man  to  know  of  God. 

"Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  power?  We 
see  it  in  the  unchangeable  order  by  which  the  in- 
comprehensible whole  is  governed.  Do  we  want 
to  contemplate  his  munificence?  We  see  it  in  the 
abundance  with  which  he  fills  the  earth.  Do  we 
want  to  contemplate  his  mercy?  We  see  it  in  his 
not  withholding  that  abundance  even  from  the 
unthankful.  In  fine,  do  we  want  to  know  what 
God  is?  Search  not  the  book  called  the  Scripture, 
which  any  human  hand  might  make,  but  the 
Scripture  called  the  creation"  (Ibid.). 

"What  is  it  the  Bible  teaches  us? — rapine, 
cruelty,  and  murder.  What  is  it  the  Testament 
teaches  us? — to  believe  that  the  Almighty  com- 
mitted debauchery  with  a  woman  engaged  to  be 
married,  and  the  belief  of  this  debauchery  is 
called  faith"  (Ibid.). 

"It  is  the  fable  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  told  in  the 
New  Testament,  and  the  wild  and  visionary  doc- 
trine raised  thereon,   against  which   I  contend. 


THOMAS  PAINE.  31 

The  story,  taking  it  as  it  is  told,  is  blasphemously 
obscene"  (Ibid.). 

"As  to  the  Christian  system  of  faith,  it  appears 
to  me  as  a  species  of  Atheism — a  sort  of  religious 
denial  of  God.  It  professes  to  believe  in  a  man 
rather  than  in  God.  It  is  a  compound  made  up 
chiefly  of  Manism  with  but  little  Deism,  and  is  as 
near  Atheism  as  twilight  is  to  darkness.  It  in- 
troduces between  man  and  his  Maker  an  opaque 
body,  which  it  calls  a  Kedeemer,  as  the  moon  in- 
troduces her  opaque  self  between  the  earth  and 
the  sun,  and  it  produces  by  this  means  a  religious, 
or  an  irreligious  eclipse  of  light.  It  has  put  the 
whole  orbit  of  reason  into  shade"  (Ibid.). 

"The  intellectual  part  of  religion  is  a  private 
affair  between  every  man  and  his  Maker,  and  in 
which  no  third  party  has  any  right  to  interfere. 
The  practical  part  consists  in  our  doing  good  to 
each  other.  But  since  religion  has  been  made 
into  a  trade,  the  practical  part  has  been  made  to 
consist  of  ceremonies  performed  by  men  called 
priests. ...  By  devices  of  this  kind  true  religion 
has  been  banished,  and  such  means  have  been 
found  out  to  extract  money,  even  from  the 
pockets  of  the  poor,  instead  of  contributing  to 
their  relief"  (Letter  to  Camille  Jordan). 

"No  man  ought  to  make  a  living  by  religion.  It 
is  dishonest  so  to  do"    (Ibid.). 


32  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

"Who  art  thou,  vain  dust  and  ashes,  by  what- 
ever name  thou  art  called — whether  a  king,  a 
bishop,  a  church,  or  a  state — that  obtrudest  thine 
insignificance  between  the  soul  of  man  and  his 
Maker?"  (Rights  of  Man). 

"Any  system  of  religion  that  has  anything  in 
it  that  shocks  the  mind  of  a  child,  cannot  be  a 
true  system"  (Age  of  Reason). 

"To  do  good  is  my  religion." 

"I  believe  that  religious  duties  consist  in  doing 
justice,  loving  mercy,  and  endeavoring  to  make 
our  fellow-creatures  happy"  (Age  of  Reason). 

Paine's  unbelief  was  life-long.  In  his  "Age  of 
Reason"  he  says:  "From  the  time  I  was  capable 
of  conceiving  an  idea  and  acting  upon  it  by  re- 
flection, I  either  doubted  the  truth  of  the  Chris- 
tian system  or  thought  it  to  be  a  strange  affair." 

It  has  been  claimed  that  Paine,  when  he  wrote 
hi-"'  "Common  Sense,"  and  advocated  American 
Independence,  was  a  Christian.  Concerning  this 
Moncure  D.  Conway  says:  "In  his  ^Common 
BenEe,'  (published  January  10,  1776),  Paine  used 
the  reproof  of  Israel  (1  Samuel)  for  desiring  a 
king.  John  Adams,  a  Unitarian  and  monarchist, 
asked  him  if  he  really  believed  in  the  inspiration 
of  the  Old  Testament.  Paine  said  he  did  not,  and 
intended  at  a  later  period  to  publish  his  opinions 
on  the  subject"  (Life  of  Paine,  Vol.  ii,  p.  203). 


THOMAS  PAINE.  g^ 


DID  PAINE  RECANT  f 


Did  Thomas  Paine  recant?  Did  Martin  Luther 
recant?  Protestants  assert  that  Paine  recanted; 
Catholics  assert  that  Luther  recanted.  Neither 
recanted.  Knaves  invented  these  stories;  fools 
believe  them. 

The  church  endeavors  to  convince  the  world 
that  her  opponents  are  not  sincere.  She  attempts 
to  impeach  the  intellectual  honesty  of  those  who 
reject  her  dogmas.  She  affects  to  believe  that  all 
must  at  some  time  acknowledge  the  truth  of  her 
claims.  The  supreme  test  is  supposed  to  come 
just  before  dissolution.  In  the  presence  of  death 
all  bow  to  her  authority. 

When  on  his  death-bed  Paine  was  beset  by 
emissaries  of  the  church, — pious  nurses,  bigoted 
priests,  and  illiterate  laymen — who  by  entreaties 
and  threats  tried  to  compel  him  to  renounce  his 
Deistic  and  Anti-Christian  opinions.  What  a  far- 
cical scene!  What  a  commentary  on  Christian- 
ity! Poor,  ignorant,  ill-mannered  creatures,  ex- 
pecting with  silly  gibberish  and  impudence  to 
change  the  life-long  convictions  of  a  dying  philos- 
opher! 

After  his  death,  Catholics,  Methodists,  Presby- 
terians, Baptists,  Episcopalians,  and  orthodox 
Quakers  all  vied  with  each  other  in  inventing  cal- 


34  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUE  EEPUBUC. 

urnnies  concerning  him.  The  last  named  sect  was 
e&pecifillj'  active  in  this  work,  because  Paine  was 
the  son  of  a  Quaker,  and  apostasy  was  as  hateful 
to  the  Quaker  as  it  was  to  the  Catholic. 

About  ten  years  after  Paine  died,  this  recanta- 
tion calumny  appeared.  "\^Mllet  Hicks,  a  Quaker 
merchant  and  preacher,  a  cousin  of  the  celebrated 
Elias  nicks,  and  a  broad  and  liberal  man,  lived 
near  Paine,  and  during  his  last  illness  did  all  he 
could  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  the  sick  man 
and  make  his  last  hours  pleasant.  Mary  Roscoe, 
afterwards  Mary  Ilinsdale,  was  a  servant  in  the 
Ilicks  family,  and,  it  is  alleged,  was  sometimes 
sent  to  Paine's  room  on  errands.  On  one  of  these 
visits  Paine,  it  is  claimed,  engaged  her  in  conver- 
sation, and  recanted  to  her  his  Infidel  opinions. 
According  to  this  story,  "Paine  asked  her  if  she 
had  ever  read  any  of  his  writings,  and  on  being 
told  she  had  read  very  little  of  them,  he  inquired 
what  she  thought  of  them,  adding,  Trom  such  a 
one  as  you  I  expect  a  correct  answer.'  She  told 
him  that  when  very  young  his  'Age  of  Reason' 
wa«  put  into  her  hands,  but  that  the  more  she 
read  in  it  the  more  dark  and  distressed  she  felt, 
and  whe  threw  the  book  into  the  fire.  'I  wish  all 
had  done  as  you,'  he  rei^lied,  'for  if  the  devil  ever 
had  any  agency  in  any  work,  he  has  had  it  in  my 
writing  that  book.'     When  going  to  carry  him 


THOMAS  PAINE.  35 

some  refreshments,  she  repeatedly  heard  him  ut- 
tering the  language,  'Oh!  Lord!'  'Lord  God!'  or 
'Lord  Jesus,  have  mercy  upon  me!'  "  (Life  of 
Stephen  Grellet,  Vol.  L,  p.  125). 

What  a  plausible  tale!  Paine's  "Age  of  Rea- 
son" was  published  in  1794.  After  a  lapse  of  fif- 
teen years  he  desires  an  opinion  of  it.  Persons  of 
intellectual  attainments  and  mature  judgment, 
believers  and  unbelievers,  many  of  them  familiar 
with  its  contents,  visit  him  daily.  He  ignores  all 
of  these  and  solicits  the  opinion  of  an  illiterate 
servant  girl!  He  "expects  a  correct  answer"  from 
her,  the  more  especially  as  she  has  read  very  little 
of  it  and  is  ignorant  of  its  contents. 

The  calumny  quickly  found  its  way  to  Eng- 
land. The  famous  English  writer,  William  Cob- 
bett,  afterwards  a  member  of  Parliament,  wrote 
a  refutation  of  it.  Mr.  Cobbett's  refutation,  with 
a  few  abridgements,  is  as  follows: 

"It  is  a  part  of  the  business  of  a  press  sold  to 
the  cause  of  corruption  to  calumniate  those,  dead 
or  alive,  who  have  most  effectually  labored 
against  that  cause;  and,  as  Paine  was  the  most 
powerful  and  effectual  of  those  laborers,  so  to 
calumniate  him  has  been  an  object  of  their  pe- 
culiar attention  and  care.  Among  other  things 
said  against  this  famous  man  is,  that  he  recanted 


36  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUE  REPUBLIC. 

before  he  died;  and  that  in  his  last  illness  he  dis- 
covered horrible  fears  of  death." 

"I  happen  to  know  the  origin  of  this  story,  and 
I  possess  the  real  original  document  whence  have 
proceeded  these  divers  editions  of  the  falsehood, 
of  the  very  invention  of  which  I  was  perhaps  my- 
self the  innocent  cause! 

"About  two  years  ago  I,  being  then  on  Long 
Island,  published  my  intention  of  writing  an  ac- 
count of  the  life,  labors,  and  death  of  Paine. 
Soon  after  this  a  Quaker  of  New  York,  named 
Charles  Collins,  made  many  applications  for  an 
interview  with  me,  which  at  last  he  obtained.  I 
found  that  his  object  was  to  persuade  me  that 
Taine  had  recanted.  I  laughed  at  him  and  sent 
him  away.  But  he  returned  again  and  again  to 
to  the  charge.  He  wanted  me  to  promise  that  I 
would  say  that  'it  was  said'  that  Paine  had  re- 
canted. 'No,'  said  I,  'but  I  will  say  that  you  say 
it,  and  that  you  tell  a  lie,  unless  you  prove  the 
truth  of  what  you  say;  and,  if  you  do  that,  I  shall 
gladly  insert  the  fact.'  This  posed  'Friend  Char- 
ley,' whom  I  suspected  to  be  a  most  consummate 
hypocrite.  He  had  a  sodden  face,  a  simper,  and 
maneuvred  his  features  precisely  like  the  most 

perfidious  wretch  that  I  have  known Thus  put 

to  his  trump.  Friend  Charley  resorted  to  the  aid 
of  a  person  of  his  own  stamp;  and  at  last  he 


THOMAS  PAINE.     .  87 

brought  me  a  paper.  .  .  .This  paper,  very  cau- 
tiously and  craftily  drawn  up,  contained  only  the 
initials  of  names.  This  would  not  do.  I  made 
him,  at  last,  put  down  the  full  name  and  address 
of  the  informer — 'Mary  Hinsdale,  No.  10  Anthony 
street,  New  York.' " 

"The  informer  was  a  Quaker  woman,  who,  at 
the  time  of  Mr.  Paine's  last  illness,  was  a  servant 
in  the  family  of  Mr.  Willet  Hicks,  an  eminent 
merchant,  a  man  of  excellent  character,  a  Quaker, 
and  even,  I  believe,  a  Quaker  preacher.  Mr.  Hicks, 
a  kind  and  liberal  and  rich  man,  visited  Mr. 
Paine  in  his  illness;  and  from  his  house,  which 
was  near  that  of  Mr.  Paine,  little  nice  things  (as 
is  the  practice  in  America)  were  sometimes  sent 
to  him,  of  which  this  servant,  Friend  Mary,  was 
the  bearer;  and  this  was  the  w^ay  in  which  the 
lying  cant  got  into  the  room  of  Mr.  Paine. 

"To  friend  Mary,  therefore,  I  went  on  the 
twenty-sixth  of  October  last,  with  Friend  Char- 
ley's paper  in  my  pocket.  I  found  her  in  a  lodg- 
ing in  a  back  room  up  one  pair  of  stairs.  ...  I 
was  compelled  to  come  quickly  to  business.  She 
asked,  'What's  thy  name,  Friend?'  and  the  mo- 
ment I  said,  'William  Cobbett,'  up  went  her 
mouth  as  tight  as  a  purse!  Sack-making  ap- 
peared to  be  her  occupation;  and,  that  I  might  not 
extract  through  her  eyes  that  which  she  was  re- 


38  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

solved  I  should  not  get  out  of  her  mouth,  she  went 
and  took  up  a  sack  and  began  to  sew,  and  not  an- 
other look  or  glance  could  I  get  from  her. 

"However,  I  took  out  my  paper,  read  it,  and, 
stopping  at  several  points,  asked  her  if  it  was 
true.  Talk  of  the  Jesuits,  indeed!  The  whole 
tribe  of  Loyola,  who  had  shaken  so  many  king- 
doms to  their  base,  never  possessed  the  millionth 
part  of  the  cunning  of  this  drab-colored  little 
woman,  whose  face,  simplicity  and  innocence 
seemed  to  have  chosen  as  the  place  of  their  tri- 
umph! She  shuffled;  she  evaded;  she  equivo- 
cated; she  warded  off;  she  affected  not  to  under- 
stand me,  not  to  understand  the  paper,  not  to  re- 
member." 

"The  result  was  that  it  was  so  long  ago  that  she 
could  not  speak  positively  on  any  part  of  the  mat- 
ter; that  she  would  not  say  that  any  part  of  the 
paper  was  true;  that  she  had  never  seen  the 
paper;  and  that  she  had  never  given  Friend  Char- 
ley (for  so  she  called  him)  authority  to  say  any- 
thing about  the  matter  in  her  name. 

"I  had  now  nothing  to  do  but  to  bring  Friend 
Charley's  nose  to  the  grindstone.  But  Charley, 
though  so  pious  a  man  and  doubtless  in  great 
haste  to  get  to  everlasting  bliss,  had  moved  out 
of  the  city  for  fear  of  the  fever." 

Mr.  Cobbett  supposed  that  Mary  Hinsdale  had 


THOMAS  PAINE.  39 

really  visited  Paine,  and  this  supposition  was 
shared  by  Paine's  friends  generally.  When  Gil- 
bert Vale,  about  twenty  years  later,  was  collect- 
ing materials  for  his  life  of  Paine,  he  learned  from 
Mr.  Hicks  that  she  had  never  seen  Thomas  Paine. 
Mr,  Yale  says: 

''To  our  surprise,  on  seeing  Mr.  Hicks,  as  a  duty 
which  we  owed  the  public,  we  learned  that  Mary 
Hinsdale  never  saw  Paine  to  Mr.  Hicks'  knowl- 
edge; that  the  fact  of  his  sending  some  delicacy 
from  his  table  as  a  compliment  occurred  but  a 
very  few  times,  and  that  he  always  commissioned 
his  daughters  on  this  errand  of  kindness,  and  he 
designated  Mrs.  Cheeseman,  then  a  little  girl,  but 
now  the  wife  of  one  of  our  celebrated  physicians, 
as  the  daughter  especially  engaged,  and  that  she 
stated  that  Mary  Hinsdale  once  wished  to  go  with 
her,  but  was  refused"  (Life  of  Paine,  p.  178) . 

This  accounts  for  the  embarrassment  and  reti- 
cence exhibited  by  Mary  Hinsdale  when  confront- 
ed by  Cobbett.  She  had  never  seen  Paine,  she  had 
never  visited  the  house  in  which  he  died;  she 
could  not  describe  its  surroundings  or  interior; 
she  had  never  seen  any  of  his  attendants.  If  she 
attempted  to  make  any  statements  concerning 
them  she  had  reason  to  believe  that  ^Madame  Bon- 
neville and  other  witnesses  were  near  at  hand  to 
expose  her. 


40  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

In  the  neighborhood  where  Mrs.  Hinsdale  lived 
she  was  universally  regarded  as  a  low,  disrepu- 
table woman,  addicted  to  the  use  of  opium,  and 
notorious  for  her  lying  propensities.  Nor  was  her 
share  in  the  Paine  calumny  her  only  offense  of 
the  kind.  Mr.  Vale,  writing  in  1839,  cites  the  fol- 
lowing testimony  of  Mr.  J.  W.  Lockwood,  a  repu- 
table gentleman,  of  New  York: 

"This  gentleman  had  a  sister,  a  member  of  the 
Friends  who  died  about  two-and-twenty  years 
ago.  On  her  death,  Mary  Hinsdale,  who  was 
known  to  the  family,  stated  to  them  that  she 
should  come  to  the  funeral,  for  that  she  had  met 
Mary  Lockwood  a  short  time  before  her  death; 
and  that  she  (Mary  Lockwood)  had  said  to  her: 
'Mary,  I  do  not  expect  to  live  long;  my  views  are 
changed;  I  wish  thee  to  come  to  my  funeral,  and 
make  this  declaration  to  my  friends  then  assem- 
bled,' and  that  consequently  she  should  come. 
The  relatives  of  the  deceased,  who  were  Hicksite 
Quakers,  or  Friends,  knew  the  falseness  of  this 
statement.  Those  who  had  sat  by  her  bedside, 
and  heard  her  continued  and  last  declarations  on 
religious  subjects  (for  she  was  emphatically  a 
religious  young  woman),  knew  that  no  change 
had  taken  place.  Her  brother,  our  informant,  had 
heard  her  express  her  opinions  with  great  satis- 
faction.    He  and   her  other  relatives   therefore 


THOMAS  PAINE.  ^1 

said  so  to  Mary  Hinsdale,  but  invited  her  to  at- 
tend tlie  funeral.  Mary  Hinsdale  did  not  attend" 
(Life  of  Paine,  p.  185). 

Collins  himself  afterwards  tacitly  admitted  the 
falsity  of  the  Paine  calumny.  Mr.  Vale,  on  whom 
he  once  called,  says: 

"Finding  Mr.  C.  Collins  in  our  houie,  and  know- 
ing the  importance  of  his  testimony,  we  at  one© 
asked  him  what  induced  him  to  publish  the  ac- 
count of  Mary  Hinsdale.  He  assured  us  he  then 
thought  it  true.  He  believed  that  she  had  seen 
Mr.  Paine,  and  that  Mr.  Paine  might  confess  to 
her,  a  girl,  when  he  would  not  to  Willet  Hicks, 
He  knew  that  many  of  their  most  respected 
Friends  did  not  believe  the  account.  He  knew 
that  Mr.  Hicks  did  not,  whom  he  highly  re- 
spected; but  yet  he  thought  it  might  be  true.  We 
asked  Mr.  Collins  what  he  though  of  the  charac- 
ter of  Mary  Hinsdale  now?  He  replied  that  some 
of  our  Friends  believe  she  indulges  in  opiates  and 
do  not  give  her  credit  for  truth."    (Ibid.) 

The  exposures  of  Cobbett,  Vale,  and  others, 
while  they  lessened  the  influence  of  the  calumny, 
did  not  silence  it.  It  mattered  little  to  the  church 
whether  Paine  recanted  or  not,  but  it  was  impor- 
tant that  the  masses  should  believe  that  he  re- 
canted. With  most  theologians  a  falsehood  is  as 
good  as  a  truth  so  long  as  it  serves  its  purpose. 


42  THE  FATHERS  OP  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

The  orthodox  clergy  continued  to  thunder  it  from 
the  pulpit;  tract  distributers  sowed  it  broadcast 
over  the  land;  no  Sunday  school  library  was  con- 
sidered complete  without  a  volume  containing  it; 
while  the  religious  papers  kept  it  continually  be- 
fore their  readers.  The  New  York  Observer,  a 
Presbyterian  paper,  repeatedly  published  it,  to- 
gether with  other  calumnies  on  Paine.  In  an  open 
letter  to  the  Observer,  Col.  Ingersoll,  in  1877,  is- 
sued the  following  challenge: 

"I  will  deposit  with  the  First  National  Bank  of 
Peoria,  Illinois,  one  thousand  dollars  in  gold, 
upon  the  following  conditions: — This  money  shall 
be  subject  to  your  order  when  you  shall,  in  the 
manner  hereafter  provided,  substantiate  that 
Thomas  Paine  admitted  the  Bible  to  be  an  in- 
spired book,  or  that  he  recanted  his  Infidel  opin- 
ions— or  that  he  died  regretting  that  he  had  disbe- 
lieved the  Bible — or  that  he  died  calling  upon 
Jesus  Christ  in  any  religious  sense,  whatever. 

"In  order  that  a  tribunal  may  be  created  to  try 
this  question,  you  may  select  one  man,  I  will  se- 
lect another,  and  the  two  thus  chosen  shall  se- 
lect a  third,  and  any  two  of  the  three  may  decide 
the  matter. 

"As  there  will  be  certain  costs  and  expendi- 
tures on  both  sides,  such  costs  and  expenditures 
shall  be  paid  by  the  defeated  party. 


THOMAS  PAINE.  43 

"In  addition  to  the  one  thousand  dollars  in 
gold,  I  will  deposit  a  bond  with  good  and  sufficient 
security  in  the  sum  of  two  thousand  dollars,  con- 
ditioned for  the  payment  of  all  costs  in  case  I  am 
defeated.    I  shall  require  of  you  a  like  bond. 

"From  the  date  of  accepting  this  offer  you  may 
have  ninety  days  to  collect  and  present  your  tes- 
timony, giving  me  notice  of  time  and  place  of  tak- 
ing depositions.  I  shall  have  a  like  time  to  take 
evidence  upon  my  side,  giving  you  like  notice,  and 
you  shall  then  have  thirty  days  to  take  further 
testimony  in  reply  to  what  I  may  offer.  The  case 
shall  then  be  argued  before  the  persons  chosen; 
and  their  decision  shall  be  final  as  to  us. 

"If  the  propositions  do  not  suit  you  in  any  par- 
ticular, please  state  your  objections,  and  I  will 
modify  them  in  any  way  consistent  with  the  ob- 
ject in  view. 

"As  soon  as  you  notify  me  of  the  acceptance  of 
these  propositions  I  will  send  you  the  certificate 
of  the  bank  that  the  money  has  been  deposited 
upon  the  foregoing  conditions,  together  with 
copies  of  bonds  for  costs." 

The  Observer  made  a  pretence  of  accepting  the 
challenge  and  then  backed  out.  It  again  repeated 
the  Mary  Hinsdale  story  with  this  endorsement: 
"It  has  been  published  again  and  again,  and  so 
far  as  we  know  has  never  been  impeached."    In 


44  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

a  subsequent  issue,  it  said:  "We  have  never 
stated  in  any  form,  nor  have  we  ever  supposed 
that  Paine  actually  renounced  his  Infidelity.  The 
accounts  agree  in  stating  that  he  died  a  blas- 
pheming Infidel."  Col.  Ingersoll's  reply  contained 
the  following: 

"From  the  bottom  of  my  heart  I  thank  myself 
for  having  compelled  you  to  admit  that  Thomas 
Paine  did  not  recant.    •    *    ♦ 

"You  have  eaten  your  own  words,  and,  for  my 
part,  I  would  rather  have  dined  with  Ezekiel  than 
with  you. 

"I  ask  you  if  it  is  honest  to  throw  away  the 
testimony  of  his  friends — the  evidence  of  fair  and 
honorable  men — and  take  the  putrid  words  of 
avowed  and  malignant  enemies? 

"When  Thomas  Paine  was  dying,  he  was  in- 
fested by  fanatics — by  the  snaky  spies  of  bigotry. 
In  the  shadows  of  death  were  the  unclean  birds 
of  prey  waiting  to  tear  with  beak  and  claw  the 
corpse  of  him  who  wrote  the  'Rights  of  Man.'  And 
there  lurking  and  crouching  in  the  darkness  were 
the  jackals  and  hyenas  of  superstition  ready  to 
violate  his  grave. 

''These  birds  of  prey — these  unclean  beasts  are 
the  witnesses  produced  and  relied  upon  by  you. 

"One  by  one  the  instruments  of  torture  have 
been    wrenched    from    the    cruel    clutch    of    the 


THOMAS  PAINE.  45 

Church,  until  within  the  armory  of  orthodoxy 
there  remains  but  one  weapon — Slander." 

In  disproof  of  the  lying  statement  of  this  de- 
praved woman,  who  never  saw  Thomas  Paine,  we 
have,  thanks  to  the  unselfish  labors  of  Cobbett, 
Vale,  Ingersoll,  and  Conway,  the  testimony  of  a 
score  of  death-bed  witnesses. 

Two  of  Paine's  most  devoted  friends  in  France 
were  Nicholas  Bonneville  and  his  wife.  Bonne- 
ville like  Paine  was  a  prominent  actor  in  the 
French  Revolution.  After  the  Revolution  Paine 
lived  with  the  Bonnevilles  in  Paris,  For  criti- 
cising Napoleon  in  his  journal  Bonneville  was  im- 
prisoned and  his  family  reduced  to  penury.  Paine 
gave  them  a  home  in  America.  When  he  was 
taken  sick  Madame  Bonneville  tenderly  cared  for 
him  until  he  died.  After  his  death  Bonneville 
and  his  wife  wrote  a  sketch  of  the  life  of  their 
benefactor.  It  was  subsequently  revised  by 
Cobbett,  and  will  be  found  appended  to  Dr. 
Conway's  admirable  biography  of  Paine.  The  fol- 
lowing, relative  to  Paine's  death,  is  from  the  pen 
of  Madame  Bonneville: 

"When  he  was  near  his  end,  two  American 
clergymen  came  to  see  him,  and  to  talk  with  him 
on  religious  matters.  'Let  me  alone,'  said  he, 
'good  morning.'  He  desired  they  should  be  ad- 
mitted no  more.       Seeing  his  end  fast  approach- 


46  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

ing,  I  asked  him,  in  presence  of  a  friend,  if  he  felt 
satisfied  with  the  treatment  he  had  received  at 
our  house,  upon  which  he  could  only  exclaim,  Oh, 
yes!  He  added  other  words  but  they  were  inco- 
herent. It  was  impossible  for  me  not  to  exert  my- 
self to  the  utmost  in  taking  care  of  a  person  to 
whom  I  and  my  children  owed  so  much.  He  now 
appeared  to  have  lost  all  kinds  of  feeling.  He 
spent  the  night  in  tranquility,  and  expired  in  the 
morning  at  eight  o'clock." 

Madame  Bonneville  was  a  lady  of  spotless  char- 
acter, educated  and  refined,  and,  like  most 
French  women,  a  Catholic. 

Dr.  N.  Romaine,  at  that  time  the  most  eminent 
physician  of  New  York,  was  Paine's  physician. 
He  testified  that  Paine  did  not  recant.  A  Dr. 
Manley  also  visited  him.  But  it  afterward  trans- 
pired that  he  was  there  as  a  Christian  spy  and 
emissary.  His  real  mission  was  to  extort,  if  pos- 
sible, a  recantation  from  the  lips  of  the  dying 
Infidel.  In  a  letter  to  James  Cheetham,  the  vilest 
of  Paine's  calumniators,  he  says:  "I  took  oc- 
casions during  the  nights  of  the  5th  and  6th  of 
June  to  test  the  strength  of  his  opinions  respect- 
ing revelation.  I  purposely  made  him  a  very  late 
visit;  it  was  a  time  which  seemed  to  suit  exactly 
with  my  errand;  it  was  midnight,  he  was  in  great 
distress."     Addressing  Paine,  Dr.  Manley  said: 


THOMAS  PAINE.  47 

"Do  you  believe  in  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ? 
Come,  now,  answer  me  honestly.  I  want  an  an- 
swer from  the  lips  of  a  dying  man,  for  I  verily 
believe  that  you  will  not  live  twenty-four  hours." 
Not  receiving  an  immediate  answer,  he  continued, 
"Allow  me  to  ask  again,  do  you  believe?  or  let  me 
qualify  the  question,  do  you  wish  to  believe  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God?  After  a  pause 
of  some  minutes,  he  answered,  *I  have  no  wish  to 
believe  on  that  subject.'  " 

Dr.  Mauley's  "minutes"  were  probably  seconds. 
Indignant  at  the  impertinence,  not  to  say  brutal- 
ity, of  his  pious  interrogator,  the  dying  patient 
paused  to  summon  strength  to  utter  a  reply  that 
should  not  be  misunderstood.  With  the  exception 
of  the  brief  words  mentioned  by  Madame  Bonne- 
ville, those  were  the  last  words  of  Thomas  Paine. 

Dr.  Manley  says  that  Paine  throughout  his  ill- 
ness manifested  great  fear.  "He  could  not  be  left 
alone  night  or  day;  he  not  only  required  to  have 
some  person  with  him  but  he  must  see  that  he 
or  she  was  there,  and  would  not  allow  his  curtain 
to  be  closed  at  any  time."  This  is  true;  and  sub- 
sequent events  showed  that  his  fears  were  well 
founded.    Dr.  Conway  says: 

"His  unwillingness  to  be  left  alone,  ascribed  to 
superstitious  terror,  was  due  to  efforts  to  get  a  re- 
cantation from  him,  so  determined  that  he  dare 


48  THE  FATHERS  OP  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

not  be  without  witnesses.  He  had  foreseen  this. 
While  living  with  Jarvis,  two  years  before,  he  de- 
sired him  to  bear  witness  that  he  maintained  his 
theistic  convictions  to  the  last.  .  .  .  When  he 
knew  that  his  illness  was  mortal  he  solemnly  re- 
aflSrmed  these  opinions  in  the  presence  of  Mad- 
ame Bonneville,  Dr.  Romaine,  Mr.  Haskin,  Cap- 
tain Pelton,  and  Thomas  Nixon."  (Life  of  Paine, 
Vol.  ii,  p.  414.) 

It  was  these  witnesses — some  of  whom  were  al- 
ways present  when  Dr.  Manley  visited  him — that 
prevented  this  charlatan  from  doing  what  Mary 
Hinsdale  did. 

Just  before  Paine's  death  the  Rev.  Cunningham 
and  the  Rev.  Milledollar,  prominent  clergymen  of 
New  York,  gained  access  to  his  room.  W^ith  that 
politeness  so  characteristic  of  clergymen,  when 
addressing  those  who  do  not  subscribe  to  their 
opinions,  Mr.  Cunningham  said  to  him,  "You  have 
now  a  full  view  of  death,  you  cannot  live  long,  and 
whosoever  does  not  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  shall 
be  damned."  To  this  Paine  replied,  "Let  me  have 
none  of  your  popish  nonsense.  Good  morning." 
Mr.  Cunningham  and  Mr.  Milledollar  both  af- 
firmed that  Paine  died  unrepentant. 

A  blind  preacher,  named  Pigott,  and  his 
brother  also  visited  Paine  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
verting him.  The  brother  says  that  Paine  received 


THOMAS  PAINE.  '49 

them  cordially  and  treated  them  politely,  but  ex- 
hibited great  displeasure  when  they  attempted  to 
obtrude  their  religious  opinions  upon  him. 

Mrs.  Redden,  Paine's  pious  nurse,  was  espe- 
cially anxious  to  secure  his  conversion.  She  ad- 
mitted the  clergymen  who  annoyed  him  during 
his  last  hours  and  is  charged  with  the  responsi- 
bility of  Dr.  Mauley's  visits.  But  Mrs.  Redden  de- 
sired a  genuine  conversion,  not  a  fabricated  re- 
cantation. She  frankly  confessed  that  all  efforts 
to  change  his  views  were  futile. 

There  is  usually  an  attempt  to  supply  every  de- 
mand. That  there  was  an  urgent  demand  for  this 
recantation  story,  particularly  among  the  Quak- 
ers, is  attested  by  the  Quaker  preacher,  Willet 
Hicks.    Mr.  Hicks  says: 

"You  can  have  no  idea  of  the  anxiety  of  our 
people  on  this  subject;  I  was  beset  by  them,  both 
here  and  in  England,  where  I  soon  after  went  on 
a  journey.  ...  As  for  money,  I  could  have  had 
any  sums  if  I  would  have  said  anything  against 
Thomas  Paine,  or  if  even  I  would  have  consented 
to  remain  silent.  They  informed  me  that  the  doc- 
tor (Manley)  was  willing  to  say  something  that 
would  satisfy  them  if  I  would  engage  to  be 
silent."    (Vale's  Life  of  Paine,  p.  178.) 

The   following   affidavit   was   subscribed   and 


50  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

sworn  to  by  William  B.  Barnes  of  Wabash,  Indi- 
ana, October  27,  1877: 

"In  the  year  1833  Willet  Hicks  made  a  visit  to 
Indiana  and  stayed  over  night  at  my  father's 
house,  four  miles  east  of  Eichmond.  In  the  morn- 
ing at  breakfast  my  mother  asked  Willet  Hicks 
the  following  questions: 

"  'Was  thee  with  Thomas  Paine  during  his  last 
sickness?' 

"Mr.  Hicks  said:  'I  was  with  him  every  day 
during  the  latter  part  of  his  last  sickness.' 

"  'Did  he  express  any  regret  in  regard  to  writ- 
ing the  "Age  of  Reason,"  as  the  published  ac- 
counts say  he  did?' 

"Mr.  Ilicks  replied:  'He  did  not  in  any  way  by 
word  or  action.' 

"  'Did  he  call  on  God  or  Jesus  Christ,  asking 
either  of  them  to  forgive  his  sins,  or  did  he  curse 
them  or  either  of  them?' 

"Mr.  Hicks  answered:  'He  did  not.  He  died  as 
easy  as  any  one  I  ever  saw  die,  and  I  have  seec 
many  die  in  my  time.'  " 

Mr.  A.  C.  Hankinson  of  Peoria,  Illinois,  writes 

"My  parents  were  Friends  (Quakers).  My  fathei 
died  when  I  was  very  young.  The  elderly  anc 
middle-aged  Friends  visited  at  my  mother's 
house.  We  lived  in  the  city  of  New  York.  Amon^ 
the  number  I  distinctly  remember  Elias  Hicks 


THOMAS  PAINE.  51 

Willet  Hicks,  and  a  Mr.  Day,  who  was  a  book- 
seller  in  Pearl  street.  There  were  many  others, 
whose  names  I  do  not  now  remember.  The  sub- 
ject of  the  recantation  by  Thomas  Paine  of  his 
views  about  the  Bible  in  his  last  illness,  or  at  any 
other  time,  was  discussed  by  them  in  my  presence 
at  different  times.  I  learned  from  them  that  some 
of  them  had  attended  upon  Thomas  Paine  in  his 
last  sickness  and  ministered  to  his  wants  up  to  the 
time  of  his  death.  And  upon  the  question  of 
whether  he  did  recant  there  was  but  one  expres- 
sion. They  all  said  that  he  did  not  recant  in  any 
manner.  I  often  heard  them  say  they  wished  he 
had  recanted.  In  fact,  according  to  them,  the 
nearer  he  approached  death  the  more  positive  he 
appeared  to  be  in  his  convictions.  These  conver- 
sations were  from  1820  to  1822." 

The  conversations  related  by  Mr.  Hankinson,  it 
will  be  seen,  occurred  almost  immediately  after 
the  publication  of  the  Hinsdale  story  and  were 
doubtless  prompted  by  it. 

In  1839  Gilbert  Vale  published  in  the  New 
York  Beacon  the  following  testimony  from 
Amasa  Woodsworth,  a  gentleman  who  lived  next 
door  to  Paine,  and  who  was  one  of  his  most  con- 
stant attendants.    Mr.  Yale  says: 

"As  an  act  of  kindness  Mr.  Woodsworth  visited 
Mr.   Paine  every  dav   for  six   weeks  before  hi!^ 


52  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

death.  He  frequently  sat  up  with  him,  and  did 
so  on  the  last  two  nights  of  his  life.  He  was  al- 
ways there  with  Dr.  Manley,  the  physician,  and 
assisted  in  removing  Mr.  Paine  while  his  bed  was 
prepared.  He  was  present  when  Dr.  Manley  asked 
Paine  4f  he  wished  to  believe  that  Jesus  Christ 
was  the  Son  of  God,'  and  he  describes  Mr.  Paine's 
answer  as  animated.  He  says  that  lying  on  his  back 
he  used  some  action  and  with  much  emphasis,  re- 
plied, 'I  have  no  wish  to  believe  on  that  subject.' 
He  lived  some  time  after  this,  but  was  not  known 
to  speak,  for  he  died  tranquilly.  He  accounts  for 
the  insinuating  style  of  Dr.  Manley's  letter  by 
stating  that  that  gentleman  just  after  its  publica- 
tion joined  a  church.  He  informs  us  that  he  has 
openly  reproved  the  doctor  for  the  falsity  contain- 
ed in  the  spirit  of  that  letter,  boldly  declaring  be- 
fore Dr.  Manley,  who  is  yet  living,  that  nothing 
which  he  saw  justified  the  insinuations.  Mr. 
Woodsworth  assures  us  that  he  neither  heard  nor 
saw  anything  to  justify  the  belief  of  any  mental 
change  in  the  opinions  of  Mr.  Paine  previous  to 
his  death." 

The  above  is  corroborated  by  Dr.  Philip 
Graves  who  met  Mr.  Woodsworth  in  1842.  Dr. 
Graves  says: 

*'He  told  me  that  he  nursed  Thomas  Paine  in 
his  last  illness,  and  closed  his  eyes  when  dead. 


THOMAS  PAINE.  53 

I  asked  him  if  he  recanted  and  called  upon  God 
to  save  him.  He  replied,  'No.  He  died  as  he  had 
taught.  He  had  a  sore  upon  his  side  and  when 
we  turned  him  it  was  very  painful  and  he  would 
cry  out,  "O  God!"  or  something  like  that.'  'But,' 
said  the  narrator,  'that  was  nothing,  for  he  be- 
lieved in  a  God.'  I  told  him  that  I  had  often 
heard  it  asserted  from  the  pulpit  that  Mr.  Paine 
recanted  in  his  last  moments.  The  gentleman  said 
that  it  was  not  true,  and  he  appeared  to  be  an  in- 
telligent truthful  man." 

John  Randel,  Jr.,  a  civil  engineer  of  New  York, 
an  orthodox  Christian,  says  that  Mr.  Woodsworth 
was  a  very  worthy  man  and  that  he  told  him  that 
there  was  no  truth  in  the  report  that  Paine  re- 
canted. 

Thomas  Nixon  and  Capt.  Daniel  Pelton,  who 
attended  Paine  during  his  last  sickness,  wrote, 
signed  and  sent  the  following  statement  to  Wil- 
liam Cobbett: 

"All  you  have  heard  of  his  recanting  is  false. 
Being  aware  that  such  reports  would  be  raised 
after  his  death  by  fanatics  who  infested  his  house 
at  the  time  it  was  expected  he  would  die,  we,  the 
Bubscribers,  intimate  acquaintances  of  Thomas 
Paine,  since  the  year  1776,  went  to  his  house — he 
was  sitting  up  in  a  chair,  and  apparently  in  the 
full  vigor  and  use  of  all  his  mental  faculties.    We 


54  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

interrogated  bim  on  his  religious  opinions,  and  if 
he  had  changed  his  mind  or  repented  of  anything 
he  had  said  or  written  on  that  subject.  He  an- 
swered, 'not  at  all,'  and  appeared  rather  offended 
at  our  supposition  that  any  change  should  take 
place  in  his  mind.  We  took  down  in  writing  the 
questions  put  to  him,  and  his  answers  thereto,  be- 
fore a  number  of  persons  then  in  his  room." 

Paine's  executors  were  Walter  Morton,  a  law- 
yer of  New  York,  and  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  a 
brother  of  Robert  Emmet,  the  Irish  patriot.  Both 
attended  Paine  and  both  testified  that  no  change 
took  place  in  his  opinions.  Mr.  Morton,  who  was 
present  when  he  expired,  says: 

''In  his  religious  opinions,  he  continued  to  the 
last  as  steadfast  and  tenacious  as  any  sectarian  to 
the  definition  of  his  own  creed." 

Mrs.  Kittle  Few  is  declared  by  Conway  to  be 
"The  woman  for  whom  he  (Paine)  had  the  deep- 
est affection  in  America."  Their  friendship  dated 
back  almost  to  the  Revolution.  She  was  the 
daughter  of  Commodore  Nicholson  of  New  York, 
and  the  wife  of  Col.  Few,  a  senator  from  Georgia. 
Mrs.  Few  visited  Paine  before  he  died  and  offered 
him  religious  consolation.  Had  his  opinions  un- 
dergone any  change  he  would  certainly  have  com- 
municated the  fact  to  her.  But  according  to  Gal- 
latin's biographer,    Henry   Adams,   "Paine  only 


THOMAS  PAINE.  55 

turned  his  face  to  the  wall,  and  kept  silence." 

The  eminent  orator  and  statesman,  Albert  Gal* 
latin,  a  brother-in-law  of  Mrs.  Few,  was  also  one 
of  Paine's  most  loyal  friends.  He  visited  and  con- 
versed with  Paine  while  on  his  death-bed,  but  re- 
ceived from  him  no  intimation  of  a  mental 
change.  The  gifted  painter,  John  Wesley  Jarvis, 
with  whom  Paine  had  formerly  resided,  testified 
that  Paine  on  his  death-bed  reafiirmed  the  prin- 
ciples enunciated  in  his  "A^e  of  Reason."  So  too, 
did  the  worthy  lawyers,  B.  F.  Haskin  and  Judge 
Hertel.  And  so,  too,  did  Col.  John  Fellows,  one 
of  New  York's  most  honored  and  respected 
citizens.  This  calumny  Col.  Fellows  vehemently 
denounced.  In  a  preface  to  Paine's  works  he 
says: 

"I  cannot  relinquish  this  subject  without  tak- 
ing notice  of  one  of  the  most  vile  and  wicked 
stories  that  were  ever  engendered  in  the  fruitful 
imagination  of  depraved  mortals.  It  was  fabri- 
cated by  a  woman,  named  Mary  Hinsdale,  and 
published  by  one  Charles  Collins,  at  New  York,  or 
rather,  it  is  probable  that  this  work  was  the  joint 
production  of  Collins,  and  some  other  fanatics, 
and  that  they  induced  this  stupid  ignorant 
woman  to  stand  sponsor  for  it.  .  .  .  Mrs.  Bonne- 
ville was  absent  in  France  at  the  time  of  its  first 
appearance  in  New  York,  and  when  shown  to  her 


56  THE  FATHERS  OP  OUE  REPUBLIC. 

on  her  return  to  America,  although  her  feelings 
were  highly  agitated  at  the  baseness  of  the  fabri- 
cation, she  would  not  permit  her  name  to  appear 
in  print  in  competition  with  that  of  Mary  Hins- 
dale. No  notice,  therefore,  has  been  taken  of  it, 
excepting  by  Mr.  Cobbett.  Indeed,  it  was  con- 
sidered by  the  friends  of  Mr.  Paine  generally  to 
be  too  contemptible  to  controvert." 

Of  this  witness,  and  another  death-bed  witness, 
Judge  Hertell,  Judge  Tabor  writes: 

''I  was  an  associate  editor  of  the  New  York 
Beacon  with  Col.  John  Fellows,  then  (1S36)  ad- 
vanced in  years,  but  retaining  all  the  vigor  and 
fire  of  his  manhood.  He  was  a  ripe  scholar,  a 
most  agreeable  companion,  and  had  been  the  cor- 
respondent and  friend  of  Jefferson,  Madison,  Mon- 
roe and  John  Quincy  Adams,  under  all  of  whom 
he  held  a  responsible  office  .  .  .  Col.  Fellows  and 
Judge  Hertell  visited  Paine  throughout  the  whole 
course  of  his  last  illness.  They  repeatedly  con- 
versed with  him  on  religious  topics  and  they  de- 
clared that  he  died  serenely,  philosophically  and 
resignedly.  This  information  I  had  directly  from 
their  own  lips,  and  their  characters  were  so  spot- 
less and  their  integrity  so  unquestioned,  that 
more  reliable  testimony  it  would  be  impossible 
to  give"  (Conway's  Life  of  Paine,  Vol.  ii.,  pp.  398, 
399). 


THOMAS  PAINE.  57 

Before  his  death  "the  good  gray  poet,"  Walt 
Whitman,  in  early  manhood  the  friend  and  com- 
panion of  Col.  Fellows,  adverting  to  the  Paine 
calumnies,  said: 

"It  was  a  time  when,  in  religion,  there  was  as 
yet  no  philosophical  middle-ground;  people  were 
very  strong  on  one  side  or  the  other;  there  was 
a  good  deal  of  lying,  and  the  liars  were  often  well 
paid  for  their  work.  Paine  and  his  principles 
made  the  great  issue.  Paine  was  double-damnably 
lied  about"  (Ibid.  p.  423). 

Here  are  twenty  death-bed  witnesses,  Madame 
Bonneville,  Dr.  Romaine,  Dr.  Manley,  Rev.  Cun- 
ningham, Rev.  Milledollar,  Mr.  Pigott,  Mrs.  Red- 
den, /Willet  Hicks,  Mrs.  Cheeseman,  Amasa 
Woodsworth,  Thomas  Nixon,  Captain  Pelton, 
Walter  Morton,  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  Mrs.  Few, 
Albert  Gallatin,  Mr.  Jarvis,  B.  F.  Haskin,  Colonel 
Fellows,  and  Judge  Hertell,  many  of  them  Chris- 
tians, all  affirming  or  admitting  that  Thomas 
Paine  did  not  recant. 

The  orthodox  clergy  have,  for  the  most  part,  re- 
jected the  testimony  of  these  witnesses  and  ac- 
cepted the  unsupported  statement  of  a  notorious 
liar  and  opium  fiend  who  was  not  a  death-bed  wit- 
ness. Can  men  who  do  this  be  honest?  Can  a 
religion  requiring  such  support  be  divine? 

It  should  not  have  required  the  testimony  of  a 


58  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

single  witness  to  disprove  this  story.  It  is  self- 
evidently  false.    Three  facts  confute  it: 

1.  Its  late  appearance.  Had  Thomas  Paine 
recanted  every  inhabitant  of  New  York  would 
have  heard  of  it  within  twenty-four  hours.  The 
news  of  it  would  have  spread  to  the  remotest  con- 
fines of  America  and  to  Europe  as  rapidly  as  the 
human  agencies  of  that  time  could  have  trans- 
mitted it.  It  took  ten  years  for  this  startling 
revelation  to  reach  the  ears  of  his  sick-bed  atten- 
dants. 

2  He  was  denied  burial  in  a  Christian  ceme- 
tery. Dr.  Manley  states  that  he  was  greatly  dis- 
tressed concerning  his  interment.  Madam(; 
Bonneville  says:  "He  wished  to  be  buried  in  the 
Quaker  burying  ground.  .  .  .  The  committee  of 
the  Quakers  refused  to  receive  his  body,  at  which 
he  seemed  deeply  moved."  A  renunciation  of  his 
Infidel  opinions — a  simple  acknowledgment  of 
Jesus  Christ — would  have  secured  him  a  burial 
place  in  any  Christian  cemetery.  He  was  buried 
on  his  farm. 

3.  The  continued  assaults  of  the  Church  upon 
his  character.  The  Church  does  not  assail  the 
characters  of  her  converts.  "Joy  shall  be  in 
heaven  over  one  sinner  that  repenteth,  more  than 
over  ninety  and  nine  just  persons,  which  need  no 
repentance."    Had  Paine  recanted   and   accepted 


THOMAS  PAINE.  59 

Christ,  Christians  would  have  placed  him  on  a 
pedestal  higher  than  that  of  Washington.  A 
breath  of  adverse  criticism  would  have  been 
frozen  with  a  frown.  But  instead  of  the  apothe- 
osis which  the  conversion  of  this  great  Infidel 
would  have  brought  him,  we  witness  only  the  cal- 
umniation of  his  character,  and  the  consignment 
of  his  soul  to  endless  misery  in  hell. 

It  needed  not  the  dying  testimony  of  Thomas 
Paine  to  prove  his  intellectual  honesty  in  writing 
the  "Age  of  Reason."  This  had  been  put  to  a  su- 
preme test  when  it  was  given  to  the  world.  His 
sincerity  and  his  intense  earnestness,  which  are 
evidenced  on  every  page,  were  fully  established  by 
these  facts: 

1.  The  prosecution  of  the  work,  which  had  been 
projected  in  early  manhood,  was  hastened  by 
what  he  believed  to  be  the  near  approach  of 
death.    In  the  first  part  of  the  book  he  writes: 

"My  friends  were  falling  as  fast  as  the  guillo- 
tine could  cut  their  heads  off,  and  as  I  expected, 
every  day,  the  same  fate,  I  resolved  to  begin  my 
work.  I  appeared  to  myself  to  be  on  my  death- 
bed, for  death  was  on  every  side  of  me,  and  I  had 
no  time  to  lose.  This  accounts  for  my  writing  at 
the  time  I  did,  and  so  nicely  did  the  time  and  in- 
tention meet,  that  I  had  not  finished  the  first  part 


60  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

of  the  work  more  than  six  hours  before  I  was  ar- 
rested and  taken  to  prison." 

2.  On  his  way  to  prison — and  believing  that  the 
prison  was  but  a  brief  halting  place  on  the  road 
to  the  guillotine — he  entrusted  the  work  which  he 
had  dedicated  to  his  "fellow  citizens  of  the  United 
States,"  to  his  friend  Joel  Barlow  to  convey  to  the 
publisher. 

3.  The  second  and  concluding  portion  of  the 
work  was  written  while  a  prisoner  in  the  Luxem- 
bourg, awaiting  the  summons  of  Death. 

4.  Dr.  Bond,  a  fellow  prisoner,  bears  this  tes- 
timony to  his  sincerity:  "Mr.  Paine,  while  hour- 
ly expecting  to  die,  read  to  me  parts  of  the  'Age 
of  Reason;'  and  every  night  when  I  left  him,  to  be 
separately  locked  up,  and  expected  not  to  see  him 
alive  in  the  morning,  he  always  expressed  his 
firm  belief  in  the  principles  of  that  book,  and 
begged  I  would  tell  the  world  such  were  his  dy- 
ing opinions.  .  .  .  He  was  the  most  conscientious 
man  I  ever  knew." 

"To  do  good  is  my  religion."  "Religious  duties 
consist  in  doing  justice,  loving  mercy,  and  en- 
deavoring to  make  our  fellow  creatures  happy." 
This  is  the  religion  which  Thomas  Paine  professed 
and  practiced;  this  is  the  religion  which  the 
Church  wished  him  to  renounce,  and  accept  in  its 
stead,  "I  believe  in  Jesus  Christ."    The  dogma  of 


THOMAS  PAINE.  61 

the  Church  is  passing  away;  but  the  religion  of 
Thomas  Paine  will  endure.  The  seeds  of  goodness 
sowed  by  him  are  germinating  and  growing  and 
flowering  and  fruiting  everywhere.  Dr.  Conway 
says:  "His  principles  rest  not.  His  thoughts,  un- 
traceable like  his  dust,  are  blown  about  the  world 
which  he  held  in  his  heart.  For  a  hundred  years 
no  human  being  has  been  born  in  the  civilized 
world  without  some  spiritual  tincture  from  that 
heart  whose  every  pulse  was  for  humanity,  whose 
last  beat  broke  a  fetter  of  fear,  and  fell  on  the 
throne  of  thrones." 

Thomas  Paine  did  not  recant.  But  the  Church 
is  recanting.  On  her  death-bed  tenet  after  tenet 
of  the  absurd  and  cruel  creed  which  Paine  op- 
posed is  being  renounced  by  her.  Time  will  wit- 
ness the  renunciation  of  her  last  dogma,  and  her 
death.  Then  will  the  vindication  of  Thomas 
Paine  and  the  "Age  of  Reason"  be  complete. 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON. 

Had  Jefferson's  works  been  edited  by  some 
pious  churchman  who  would  have  expunged  or 
modified  his  radical  sentiments;  or  had  his  workt* 
been  suppressed  after  they  were  published,  as 
some  desired,  the  clergy  might  with  less  fear  of 
exposure  claim  that  their  author  was  a  Christian. 
But  while  his  writings  are  accessible  to  the  pub- 
lic, it  adds  nothing  to  their  reputation  for  candor 
to  make  the  claims  respecting  his  belief  which 
many  of  them  do;  for  these  writings  clearly  prove 
that  he  was  not  a  Christian,  but  a  Freethinker. 

The  "Memoirs,  Correspondence  and  Miscellanies 
from  the  Papers  of  Thomas  Jefferson,"  edited  by 
Thomas  Jefferson  Randolph,  a  grandson  of  the 
distinguished  statesman,  was  printed  in  four 
large  volumes,  and  published  in  1829.  From  these 
volumes,  and  other  writings  of  Jefferson,  I  have 
culled  some  of  the  most  radical  thoughts  to  be 
found  in  the  whole  range  of  Infidel  literature. 

In  a  letter  to  his  nephew  and  ward,  Peter  Carr, 
while  at  school,  Jefferson  offers  the  following  ad- 
vice, which  though   thoroughly   sound,  would  be 

66 


66  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUE  REPUBLIC. 

considered  rather  questionable  advice  for  a  Chris- 
tian to  give  a  schoolboy: 

"Fix  Reason  firmly  in  her  seat,  and  call  to  her 
tribunal  every  fact,  every  opinion.  Question  with 
boldness  even  the  existence  of  a  God;  because,  if 
there  be  one,  he  must  more  approve  the  homage 
of  reason  than  of  blindfolded  fear.  ...  Do  not  be 
frightened  from  this  inquiry  by  any  fear  of  its 
consequences.  If  it  end  in  a  belief  that  there  is 
no  God,  you  will  find  incitements  to  virtue  in  the 
comfort  and  pleasantness  you  feel  in  its  exercise 
and  in  the  love  of  others  which  it  will  procure  for 
you"  (Jefferson's  Works,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  217). 

The  God  of  the  Old  Testament— the  God  which 
Christians  worship — Jefferson  pronounces  "a  be- 
ing of  terrific  character — cruel,  vindictive,  ca- 
pricious, and  unjust"  (Works,  Vol.  iv.,  p.  325). 

In  speaking  of  the  Jewish  priests,  he  denomi- 
mates  them  "a  bloodthirsty  race,  as  cruel  and  re- 
morseless as  the  being  whom  they  represented  as 
the  family  God  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  Ja- 
cob, and  the  local  God  of  Israel"  (Ibid.). 

In  a  letter  to  John  Adams,  dated  April  8,  1816, 
referring  to  the  God  of  the  Jews,  he  says: 

"Their  God  would  be  deemed  a  very  indifferent 
man  with  us"  (Ibid.  p.  373). 

To  his  nephew  he  w^rites  as  follows  regarding 
the  Bible: 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  67 

"Read  the  Bible  as  you  would  Livy  or  Tacitus. 
For  example,  in  the  book  of  Joshua  we  are  told 
the  sun  stood  still  for  several  hours.  Were  we 
to  read  that  fact  in  Livy  or  Tacitus  we  should 
class  it  with  their  showers  of  blood,  speaking  of 
their  statues,  beasts,  etc.  But  it  is  said  that  the 
writer  of  that  book  was  inspired.  Examine,  there- 
fore, candidly,  what  evidence  there  is  of  his 
having  been  inspired.  The  pretension  is  entitled 
to  your  inquiry,  because  millions  believe  it.  On 
the  other  hand,  you  are  astronomer  enough  to 
know  how  contrary  it  is  to  the  law  of  nature" 
(Works,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  217). 

In  this  same  letter,  he  thus  refers  to  Jesus 
Christ: 

"Keep  in  your  eye  the  opposite  pretensions: 
First,  of  those  who  say  he  was  begotten  by  God, 
born  of  a  virgin,  suspended  and  reversed  the  laws 
of  Nature  at  will,  and  ascended  bodily  into 
heaven;  and  second,  of  those  who  say  he  was  a 
man  of  illegitimate  birth,  of  a  benevolent  heart, 
enthusiastic  mind,  who  set  out  without  preten- 
sions to  divinity,  ended  in  believing  them,  and 
was  punished  capitally  for  sedition  by  being  gib- 
beted, according  to  the  Roman  law,  which  pun- 
ished the  first  commission  of  that  offence  by  whip- 
ping, and  the  second  by  exile  or  death  in  furca." 

His  own  opinion  respecting  the  above  is  ex- 


68  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

pressed  in  a  letter  to  John  Adams,  written  a  short 
time  previous  to  his  death: 

"The  day  will  come  when  the  mystical  gener- 
ation of  Jesus,  by  the  Supreme  Being  as  his 
father,  in  the  womb  of  a  virgin,  will  be  classed 
with  the  fable  of  the  genpration  of  Minerva  in  the 
brain  of  Jupiter"  (Works,  Vol.  iv,  p.  365) . 

In  the  gospel  history  of  Jesus,  Jefferson  discov- 
ers what  he  terms  "a  groundwork  of  vulgar  igno- 
rance, of  things  impossible,  of  superstitions,  fanat- 
icisms, and  fabrications"  (Works,  Vol.  iv,  p.  325). 

He  continues:  "If  we  could  believe  that  he 
[Jesus]  really  countenanced  the  follies,  the  false- 
hoods, and  the  charlatanisms  which  his  biogra- 
phers [Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John,]  father 
on  him,  and  admit  the  misconstructions,  inter- 
polations, and  theorizations  of  the  fathers  of  the 
early,  and  the  fanatics  of  the  latter  ages,  the  con- 
clusion would  be  irresistible  by  every  sound  mind 
that  he  was  an  impostor"  (Ibid.). 

Jefferson,  however,  did  not  regard  Jesus  as  an 
impostor.    Ue  says: 

"Among  the  sayings  and  discourses  imputed  to 
him  by  his  biographers,  I  find  many  passages  of 
fine  imagination,  correct  morality,  and  of  the 
most  lovely  benevolence;  and  others,  again,  of  so 
much  ignorance,  of  so  much  absurdity,  so  much 
untruth   and   imposture,   as   to  pronounce  it  im- 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  69 

possible  that  such  contradictions  should  have  pro- 
ceeded from  the  same  being.  I  separate,  there- 
fore, the  gold  from  the  dross,  restore  to  him  the 
former,  and  leave  the  latter  to  the  stupidity  of 
some  and  the  roguery  of  others  of  his  disciples" 
(Ibid.,  320). 

Jefferson  made  a  compilation  of  the  more 
rational  and  humane  teachings  of  Jesus,  the 
**gold,"  as  he  termed  it,  which  has  since  been  pub- 
lished. Some  superficial  readers  have  supposed 
this  to  be  an  acknowledgment  of  Christ.  Ortho- 
dox teachers,  however,  know  better  and  ignore 
the  book. 

For  the  man  Jesus,  Jefferson,  like  Rousseau, 
Paine,  Ingersoll,  and  other  Freethinkers,  had 
nothing  but  admiration;  for  the  Christ  Jesus  of 
theology,  nothing  but  contempt. 

In  regard  to  Jesus  believing  himself  inspired 
he  interposes  the  plea  of  mild  insanity.    He  says: 

"This  belief  carried  no  more  personal  imputa- 
tion than  the  belief  of  Socrates  that  he  was  under 
the  care  and  admonition  of  a  guardian  demon. 
And  how  many  of  our  wisest  men  still  believe  in 
the  reality  of  these  inspirations  while  perfectly 
sane  on  all  other  subjects"  (Works,  Vol.  iv,  p. 
327). 

Several  of  the  preceding  quotations  are  from  a 
lengthy  communication  to  William  Short.    In  the 


70  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

same  communication  he  characterizes  the  Four 
Evangelists  as  "groveling  authors"  with  "feeble 
minds."  To  the  early  disciples  of  Jesus  he  pays 
the  following  compliment: 

"Of  this  band  of  dupes  and  impostors,  Paul  was 
the  great  Corypheus,  and  first  corrupter  of  the 
doctrines  of  Jesus"  (Ibid.). 

The  published  writings  of  Jefferson,  which,  how- 
ever, do  not  contain  many  of  his  most  radical 
thoughts,  would  indicate  fhat  he  regarded  Jesus 
Christ  as  a  historical  character.  In  a  contribution 
to  Frazer's  Magazine  for  March,  1865,  Dr.  Conway 
shows  that  he  was  sometimes  disposed  to  enter- 
tain the  mythical  hypothesis.    Mr.  Conway  says: 

"Jefferson  occupied  his  Sundays  at  Monticello 
in  writing  letters  to  Paine  (they  are  unpublished, 
I  believe,  but  I  have  seen  them)  in  favor  of  the 
probabilities  that  Christ  and  his  Twelve  Apostles 
were  only  personifications  of  the  sun  and  the 
twelve  signs  of  the  Zodiac." 

This  was  the  opinion  held  by  Paine  during  the 
last  years  of  his  life. 

For  nearly  sixteen  hundred  years  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity  has  been  a  leading  tenet  of  the 
Christian  faith.  To  doubt  this  dogma  is  the 
rankest  heresy;  for  denying  it  thousands  have 
lost  their  lives.  In  a  letter  to  Col.  Pickering,  Jef- 
ferson speaks  of  "the  incomprehensible  jargon  of 


THOMAS  JEFPBESON.  71! 

the  Trinitarian  arithmetic,  that  three  are  one  and 
one  is  three." 

In  a  letter  to  James  Smith,  Jefferson  says: 
"The  hocus-pocus  phantasm  of  a  God,  like  an- 
other Cerberus,  with  one  body  and  three  heads, 
had  its  birth  and  growth  in  the  blood  of  thou- 
sands and  thousands  of  martyrs"  (Works,  V©1.  iv., 
p.  360). 
Again,  in  the  same  communication,  he  says: 
"The  Athanasian  paradox  that  one  is  three  and 
three  but  one,  is  so  incomprehensible  to  the 
human  mind,  that  no  candid  man  can  say  he  has 
any  idea  of  it,  and  how  can  he  believe  what  pre- 
sents no  idea?  He  who  thinks  he  does,  only  de- 
ceives himself.  He  proves,  also,  that  man,  once 
surrendering  his  reason,  has  no  remaining  guard 
against  absurdities  the  most  monstrous,  and  like 
a  ship  without  a  rudder,  is  the  sport  of  every 
wind.  With  such  persons,  gullibility,  which  they 
call  faith,  takes  the  helm  of  reason,  and  the  mind 
becomes  a  wreck." 

Not  at  an  insignificant  minority,  not  at  an  un- 
important and  unpopular  sect,  but  at  nine  hun- 
dred and  ninety-nine  out  of  every  thousand 
Christians — at  virtually  the  entire  Christian 
church — was  the  above  scathing  criticism  hurled. 
Even  more  bitter  is  the  following  from  a  letter  to 
Dr.  Benjamin  Waterhouse: 


72  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

"I  should  as  soon  undertake  to  bring  the  crazy 
Bkulls  of  Bedlam  to  sound  understanding,  as  in- 
culcate reason  into  that  of  an  Athanasian" 
(Works,  Vol.  iv.,  p.  353). 

In  a  letter  to  John  Adams,  written  August  22, 
1813,  Jefferson  says: 

"It  is  too  late  in  the  day  for  men  of  sincerity  to 
pretend  they  believe  in  the  Platonic  mysticism 
that  three  are  one  and  one  is  three,  and  yet,  that 
the  one  is  not  three,  and  the  three  are  not  one.. . . 
But  this  constitutes  the  craft,  the  power,  and 
profits  of  the  priests.  Sweep  away  their  gossamer 
fabrics  of  fictitious  religion,  and  they  would 
catch  no  more  flies"  (Ibid,  p.  205). 

Writing  to  John  Adams  a  year  later — July  5, 
1814 — he  again  refers  to  this  subject: 

*'The  Christian  priesthood,  finding  the  doctrines 
of  Christ  leveled  to  every  understanding,  and 
too  plain  to  need  explanation,  saw  in  the  mys- 
ticisms of  Plato  materials  with  which  they 
might  build  up  an  artificial  system,  which 
might,  from  its  indistinctness,  admit  everlasting 
controversy,  give  employment  for  their  order 
and  introduce  it  to  profit,  power  and  pre-emi- 
nence" (Ibid,  p.  242). 

Alluding  to  the  eucharist,  he  styles  the  ortho- 
dox clergy  "cannibal  priests"  (Ibid,  p.  205). 

Jefferson's   hatred   of  Calvinism   was   intense. 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  73 

He  never  ceased  to  denounce  the  "blasphemous 
absurdity  of  the  five  points  of  Calvin."  Three 
years  before  his  death  he  writes  John  Adams: 

"His  [Calvin's]  religion  was  demonism.  If  ever 
man  worshiped  a  false  God,  he  did.  The  being 
described  in  his  five  points  is  .  .  .  a  demon  of 
malignant  spirit.  It  would  be  more  pardonable 
to  believe  in  no  God  at  all,  than  to  blaspheme  him 
by  the  atrocious  attributes  of  Calvin"  (Works, 
Vol.  iv.,  p.  363). 

"It  is  hard  to  say,"  observes  Bancroft,  "which 
surpassed  the  other  in  boiling  hatred  of  Calvin- 
ism, Jefferson  or  John  Adams." 

To  Dr.  Cooper,  November  2,  1822,  Jefferson 
writes: 

"I  had  no  idea,  however,  that  in  Pennsylvania, 
the  cradle  of  toleration  and  freedom  of  religion, 
it  [fanaticism]  could  have  arisen  to  the  height  you 
describe.  This  must  be  owing  to  the  growth  of 
Presbyterianism.  The  blasphemy  of  the  five 
points  of  Calvin,  and  the  impossibility  of  defend- 
ing them,  render  their  advocates  impatient  of 
reasoning,  irritable,  and  prone  to  denunciation" 
(Works,  Vol.  iv,  p.  358). 

In  the  same  letter,  after  mentioning  the  fact 
that  in  Virginia  where  he  resides,  the  Christians 
being  divided  into  different  sects,  including  the 
Presbyterian,  are  more  tolerant,  he  continues: 


74  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

"It  is  not  so  in  the  districts  where  Presbyteri- 
anism  prevails  undividedly.  Their  ambition  and 
tyranny  would  tolerate  no  rival  if  they  had 
power.  Systematical  in  grasping  at  an  ascend- 
ancy over  all  other  sects,  they  aim,  like  the 
Jesuits,  at  engrossing  the  education  of  the  coun- 
try, are  hostile  to  every  institution  they  do  not 
direct,  and  jealous  at  seeing  others  begin  to  at- 
tend at  all  to  that  object." 

In  the  following  significant  passage  we  have 
Jefferson's  opinion  of  the  Christian  religion  as  a 
whole: 

"I  have  recently  been  examining  all  the  known 
superstitions  of  the  world,  and  do  not  find  in  our 
particular  superstition  [Christianity]  one  redeem- 
ing feature.  They  are  all  alike,  founded  upon 
fables  and  mythologies"  (Letter  to  Dr.  Woods). 

Could  a  more  emphatic  declaration  of  disbelief 
in  Christianity  be  framed  than  this? 

In  his  "Notes  on  Virginia,"  the  following  caus- 
tic allusion  to  Christianity  occurs: 

"Millions  of  innocent  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, since  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  have 
been  burnt,  tortured,  fined,  and  imprisoned;  yet 
we  have  not  advanced  one  inch  toward  uniform- 
ity. What  has  been  the  effect  of  coercion?  To 
make  one-half  the  world  fools  and  the  other  half 
hypocrites." 


THOMAS  JEFFBESON.  75 

In  his  letter  to  Dr.  Cooper,  prayer  meetings  and 
revivals  receive  this  cruel  thrust  from  his  pen: 

"In  our  Richmond  there  is  much  fanaticism,  but 
chiefly  among  the  women.  They  have  their  night 
meetings  and  praying  parties,  where,  attended  by 
their  priests,  and  sometimes  by  a  henpecked  hus- 
band, they  pour  forth  the  effusions  of  their  love 
to  Jesus  in  terms  as  amatory  and  carnal  as  their 
modesty  would  permit  to  a  merely  earthly  lover" 
(Works,  Vol.  iv.,  p.  358). 

A  short  time  before  his  death,  Jefferson,  in  a 
letter  to  John  Adams,  after  commending  the  mor- 
als of  Jesus,  wrote  as  follows  concerning  his 
philosophical  belief: 

"It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  I  am  with  him 
[Jesus]  in  all  his  doctrines.    I  am  a  Materialist." 

In  support  of  his  Materialistic  creed,  he  argues 
as  follows: 

"On  the  basis  of  sensation  we  may  erect  the 
fabric  of  all  the  certainties  we  can  have  or  need. 
I  can  conceive  thought  to  be  an  action  of  matter 
or  magnetism  of  loadstone.  When  he  who  denies 
to  the  Creator  the  power  of  endowing  matter  with 
the  mode  of  motion  called  thinking  shall  show 
how  he  could  endow  the  sun  with  the  mode  of 
action  called  attraction,  which  reins  the  planets  in 
their  orbits,  or  how  an  absence  of  matter  can  have 
a  will,  and  by  that  will  put  matter  into  motion, 


76  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

then  the  Materialist  may  be  lawfully  required  to 
explain  the  process  by  which  matter  exercises  the 
faculty  of  thinking.  When  once  we  quit  the  basis 
of  sensation,  all  is  in  the  wind.  To  talk  of  im- 
material existences,  is  to  talk  of  nothings.  To  say 
that  the  human  soul,  angels,  God,  are  immaterial, 
is  to  say  they  are  nothings,  or  that  there  is  no 
God,  no  angels,  no  soul.  I  cannot  reason  otherwise. 
But  I  believe  that  I  am  supported  in  my  creed  of 
Materialism  by  the  Lockes,  the  Tracys,  and  the 
Btewarts." 

Noting  the  absence  of  the  idea  of  immortality 
in  the  Bible  and  particularly  in  the  books  ascribed 
to  Moses,  he  writes: 

"Moses  had  either  not  believed  in  a  future  state 
of  existence,  or  had  not  thought  it  essential  to  be 
explicitly  taught  to  the  people."  (Works,  Vol.  iv., 
p.  326.) 

Jefferson's  wife  preceded  him  to  the  grave  by 
nearly  forty-four  years.  If  ever  woman  was 
adored  by  man  this  w^oman  was  adored  by  her 
husband.  The  blow  stunned  him;  and  for  weeks 
he  lay  prostrated  with  grief.  Referring  to  the 
sad  event,  Wm.  O.  Stoddard,  the  Presidential 
biographer,  says: 

"He  was  utterly  absorbed  in  sorrow,  and  took 
no  note  of  what  was  going  on  around  him.  His 
dream  of  life  had  been  shattered,  and  it  seemed 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  77 

as  if  life  itself  had  lost  its  claim  upon  him,  for  no 
faith  or  hope  of  his  reached  onward  and  inward 
to  any  other."  (Lives  of  the  Presidents,  Vol.  ii, 
p.  270.) 

In  the  following  brave  and  truthful  words  we 
have  Jefferson's  estimate  of  priestcraft: 

"In  every  country  and  in  every  age  the  priest 
has  been  hostile  to  liberty;  he  is  always  in  alii- 
ance  with  the  despot,  abetting  his  abuses  in  re- 
turn for  protection  to  his  own." 

Alluding  to  his  beloved  child,  the  University  of 
Virginia,  he  writes: 

"The  serious  enemies  are  the  priests  of  the  dif- 
ferent religious  sects  to  whose  spells  on  the  hu- 
man mind  its  improvement  is  ominous"  (Works, 
Vol.  iv.,  p.  322). 

"We  have  most  unwisely  committed  to  the 
hierophants  of  our  particular  superstition  the 
direction  of  public  opinion — that  lord  of  the  uni- 
verse. We  have  given  them  stated  and  privileged 
days  to  collect  and  catechise  us,  opportunities  of 
delivering  their  oracles  to  the  people  in  mass,  and 
of  molding  their  minds  as  wax  in  the  hollow  of 
their  hands."    (Ibid.). 

His  uncomplimentary  allusions  to  the  Christian 
clergy,  to  the  Christian  Sabbath,  and  to  Chris- 
tianity itself  as  "our  particular  superstition,"  are 
as  unorthodox  as  anything  to  be  found  in  Paine. 


78  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

To  John  Adams  he  writes  as  follows  regarding 
disestablishment  in  New  England: 

"I  join  you,  therefore,  in  sincere  congratulations 
that  this  den  of  the  priesthood  is  at  length  broken 
up,  and  that  a  Protestant  Popedom  is  no  longer 
to  disgrace  the  American  history  and  character." 
(Works,  Vol.  iv.,  p.  301). 

Jefferson's  hatred  of  priestcraft  was  life-long; 
for  while  the  above  was  written  but  a  few  years 
prior  to  his  death,  the  following  from  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Whyte,  was  written  nearly  half  a  century  be- 
fore: 

''If  anybody  thinks  that  kings,  nobles  and 
priests,  are  good  conservators  of  the  public  happi- 
ness, send  him  here  [Paris].  It  is  the  best  school 
in  the  universe  to  cure  him  of  that  folly.  He  will 
see  here  with  his  own  eyes  that  these  descriptions 
of  men  are  an  abandoned  confederacy  against  the 
happiness  of  the  mass  of  the  people." 

While  he  detested  the  entire  clergy,  regarding 
them  as  a  worthless  class,  living  like  parasites 
upon  the  labors  of  others,  his  denunciation  of  the 
Presbyterian  priesthood  was  particularly  severe, 
as  evinced  by  the  following: 

"The  Presbyterian  clergy  are  the  loudest,  the 
most  intolerant  of  all  sects;  the  most  tyrannical 
and  ambitious,  ready  at  the  word  of  the  law-giver, 
if  such  a  word  could  now  be  obtained,  to  put  their 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  79 

torch  to  the  pile,  and  to  rekindle  in  this  virgin 
hemisphere  the  flame  in  which  their  oracle,  Cal- 
rin,  consumed  the  poor  Servetus,  because  he  could 
not  subscribe  to  the  proposition  of  Calvin,  that 
magistrates  have  a  right  to  exterminate  all  here- 
tics to  the  Calvinistic  creed!  They  pant  to  re-es- 
tablish by  law  that  holy  inquisition  which  they 
can  now  only  infuse  into  public  opinion"  (Works, 
Vol.  iv.,  p.  322). 

He  charges  the  early  church  in  this  country 
with  uniform  cruelty — in  Virginia  as  well  as 
New  England.    He  says: 

"If  no  capital  execution  [of  Quakers]  took  place 
here  it  was  not  owing  to  the  moderation  of  the 
church."    (Notes  on  Virginia,  p.  262.) 

His  noble  fight  against  the  church  and  in 
behalf  of  religious  freedom  for  Virginia,  in  which 
he  acknowledged  the  valiant  support  of  Madison, 
entitles  him  to  the  everlasting  gratitude  of  every 
lover  of  liberty.  From  his  argument  in  favor  of 
the  disestablishment  of  religion,  to  be  found  in 
his  "Notes  on  Virginia,"  (pp.  234-237,)  the  follow- 
ing extracts  are  taken: 

"By  our  own  act  of  Assembly  of  1705,  c.  30,  if  a 
person  brought  up  in  the  Christian  religion  de- 
nies the  being  of  God,  or  the  Trinity,  or  asserts 
there  are  more  gods  than  one,  or  denies  the  Chris- 
tian religion  to  be  true,  or  the  Scriptures  to  be  of 


80  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUE  REPUBLIC. 

divine  authority,  he  is  punishable  on  the  first  of- 
fense bj  incapacity  to  hold  any  office  or  employ- 
ment, ecclesiastical,  civil,  or  military;  on  the  sec- 
ond, by  disability  to  sue,  to  take  any  gift  or  leg- 
acy, to  be  guardian,  executor,  or  administrator, 
any  by  three  years'  imprisonment  without  bail.  A 
father's  right  to  the  custody  of  his  own  children 
being  founded  in  law  on  his  right  of  guardianship, 
this  being  taken  away,  they  may  of  course  be 
severed  from  him,  and  put  by  the  authority  of  the 
court,  into  more  orthodox  hands.  This  is  a  sum- 
mary view  of  that  religious  slavery  under  which 
a  people  have  been  willing  to  remain,  who  have 
lavished  their  lives  and  fortunes  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  civil  freedom." 

"The  legitimate  powers  of  government  extend 
to  such  acts  only  as  are  injurious  to  others.  But 
it  does  me  no  injury  for  my  neighbor  to  say  there 
are  twenty  gods  or  no  God.  .  .  .  Constraint  may 
make  him  worse  by  making  him  a  hypocrite,  but 
it  will  never  make  him  a  truer  man." 

"Reason  and  persuasion  are  the  only  prac- 
ticable instruments.  To  make  way  for  these  free 
inquiry  must  be  indulged;  how  can  we  wish  others 
to  indulge  it  while  we  refuse  it  ourselves?  But 
every  state,  says  an  inquisitor,  has  established 
some  religion.    No  two,  say  I,  have  established  the 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  81 

same.  Is  this  a  proof  of  the  infallibility  of  estab- 
lishments?" 

"It  is  error  alone  which  needs  the  support  of 
government.    Truth  can  stand  by  itself." 

There  are  still  existing  on  the  statute  books  of 
many  states  laws  but  little  less  intolerant  than 
those  which  Jefferson  and  his  friends  removed 
from  the  statute  books  of  Virginia.  To  those  w' ho 
contend  that  these  laws  are  not  dangerous  be- 
cause no  longer  enforced,  I  commend  these  words 
of  Jefferson: 

"I  doubt  whether  the  people  of  this  country 
would  suffer  an  execution  for  heresy,  or  a  three 
months'  imprisonment  for  not  comprehending 
the  mysteries  of  the  Trinity.  But  is  the  spirit 
of  the  people  infallible — a  permanent  reliance? 
Is  it  government?  Is  this  the  kind  of  protection 
we  receive  in  return  for  the  rights  we  give  up?  Be- 
sides, the  spirit  of  the  times  may  alter — will  alter. 
Our  rulers  will  become  corrupt,  our  people  care* 
less.  A  single  zealot  may  become  persecutor,  and 
better  men  become  his  victims."  (Kotes  on  Vir- 
ginia, p.  269.) 

Jefferson's  Presidential  administration  was 
probably  the  most  purely  secular  this  country  has 
ever  had.  During  his  eight  years'  incumbency  of 
the  office  not  a  single  religious  proclamation  waa 


82  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

issued.    Referring  to  his  action  in  this  matter,  he 
says: 

"I  know  it  will  give  great  offense  to  the  clergy, 
but  the  advocate  of  religious  freedom  is  to  expect 
neither  peace  nor  forgiveness  from  them." 

In  answer  to  a  communication  from  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Miller  relative  to  this  subject,  he  writes  as  fol- 
lows: 

*'I  consider  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  as  interdicted  by  the  Constitution  from 
meddling  with  religious  institutions,  their  doc- 
trines, discipline,  or  exercises.  .  .  .  But  it  is  only 
proposed  that  I  should  recommend,  not  prescribe 
a  day  of  fasting  and  praying.  That  is,  I  should 
indirectly  assume  to  the  United  States  an  author- 
ity over  religious  exercises,  which  the  Constitu- 
tion has  directly  precluded  them  from.  .  .  .  Every 
one  must  act  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  own 
reason  and  mine  tells  me  that  civil  powers  alone 
have  been  given  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  no  authority  to  direct  the  religious 
exercises  of  his  constituents." 

A  favorite  claim  with  the  church  is  that  we  are 
indebted  to  the  Bible  and  Christianity  for  our 
moral  and  civil  law,  and  especially  that  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Bible  and  Christianity  are  a  part  of  the 
common  law.  This  claim  is  universally  urged  by 
Christians  and  generally  conceded  by  jurists.    In 


THOMAS  JEFFEESON.  83 

a  letter  to  Major  John  Cartwright,  Jefferson  ex- 
poses the  fraudulent  character  of  the  claim.  Of 
such  importance  is  the  question,  and  so  thorough 
is  the  refutation,  that  I  give  it  entire: 

"I  was  glad  to  find  in  your  book  a  formal  con- 
tradiction at  length  of  the  judiciary  usurpation 
of  legislative  powers;  for  such  the  judges  have 
usurped  in  their  repeated  decisions,  that  Chris- 
tianity is  a  part  of  the  common  law.  The  proof 
of  the  contrary  which  you  have  adduced  is  incon- 
trovertible; to  wit,  that  the  common  law  existed 
while  the  Anglo-Saxons  were  yet  Pagans,  at  a 
time  when  they  had  never  yet  heard  the  name  of 
Christ  pronounced,  or  knew  that  such  a  character 
had  ever  existed.  But  it  may  amuse  you  to  show 
when  and  by  what  means  they  stole  the  law  in 
upon  us.  In  a  case  of  quare  impedit  in  the  Year 
Book  34  H.  6,  folio  38,  (anno  1458,)  a  question  was 
made,  how  far  the  ecclesiastical  law  was  to  be 
respected  in  a  common  law  court.  And  Prisot, 
Chief  Justice,  gives  his  opinion  in  these  words: 
*A  tiel  leis  qu'ils  de  seint  eglise  out  en  ancien 
scripture  covient  a  nous  a  donner  credence,'  etc. 
.  .  ,  See  S.  C.  Fitzh.  Abr.  Qu.  imp.  89.  Bro. ; 
Abr.  Qu.  imp.  12.  Finch,  in  his  first  book,  c.  3  is 
the  first  afterwards  who  quotes  this  case,  and  mis- 
takes it  thus:  'To  such  laws  of  the  chuch  as  have 
warrant  in  Holy  Scripture  our  law  giveth  ere- 


84  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

dence;'  and  cites  Prisot,  mistranslating  'ancien 
scripture'  into  'Holy  Scripture.'  Whereas  Prisot 
palpably  says,  'To  such  laws  as  those  of  holy 
church  have  in  ancient  writing  it  is  proper  for  us 
to  give  credence;'  to  wit,  to  their  ancient  written 
laws.  This  was  in  1613,  a  century  and  a  half  after 
the  dictum  of  Prisot.  Wingate,  in  1658,  erects 
this  false  translation  into  a  maxim  of  common 
law,  copying  the  words  of  Finch,  but  citing  Prisot. 
Wing,  Max.  3.  And  Sheppard,  title  'Religion,'  in 
1675,  copies  the  same  mistranslation,  quoting  the 
Y.  B.  Finch  and  Wingate.  Hale  expresses  it  in 
these  words:  'Christianity  is  parcel  of  the  laws 
of  England.'  1  Yentr.  293.  3  Keb.  607.  But  he 
quotes  no  authority.  By  these  echoings  and  re- 
echoings  from  one  to  another  it  had  become  so  es- 
tablished in  1728  that,  in  case  the  King  vs.  Wool- 
ston,  2  Stra.  834,  the  court  would  not  suffer  it  to 
be  debated,  whether  to  write  against  Christianity 
was  punishable  in  the  temporal  courts  at  common 
law.  Wood,  therefore,  409,  ventures  still  to  vary 
the  phrase,  and  say  that  all  blasphemy  and  pro- 
faneness  are  offences  by  the  common  law,  and 
cites  2  Stra.  Then  Blackstone,  in  1763,  4.59,  re- 
peats the  words  of  Hale,  that  'Christianity  is 
part  of  laws  of  England,'  citing  Ventris  and 
Strange.  And  finally,  Lord  Mansfield,  with  a  little 
qualification,  in  Evans's  case,  in  1767,  says  that 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  85 

*the  essential  principles  of  revealed  religion  are 
part  of  the  common  law.*  Thus  ingulfing  Bible, 
Testament,  and  all,  into  the  common  law,  with- 
out citing  any  authority.  And  thus  we  find  this 
chain  of  authorities  hanging  link  by  link,  one 
upon  another,  and  all  ultimately  on  one  and  the 
same  book,  and  that  a  mistranslation  of  the  words 
'ancien  scripture'  used  by  Prisot.  Finch  quotes 
Prisot;  Wingate  does  the  same.  Sheppard  quotes 
Prisot,  Finch,  and  Wingate.  Hale  cites  nobody. 
The  court  in  Woolston's  case  cites  Hale.  Wood 
cites  Woolston's  case.  Blackstone  quotes  Wool- 
ston's case  and  Hale.  And  Lord  Mansfield,  like 
Hale,  ventures  on  his  own  authority.  Here  I 
might  defy  the  best  read  lawyer  to  produce  an- 
other scrip  of  authority  for  this  judiciary  forgery; 
and  I  might  go  on  further  to  show  how  some  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  priests  interpolated  into  the  texts 
of  Alfred's  laws  20th,  21st,  22d,  and  23d  chapters 
of  Exodus,  and  the  15th  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles, from  the  23d  to  the  29th  verse.  But  this 
would  lead  my  pen  and  your  patience  too  far. 
What  a  conspiracy  this  between  church  and  state  I 
Sing  Tantarara,  rogues  all,  rogues  all!  sing  Tan- 
tarara,  rogues  all!"  (Works,  Vol.  iv.,  pp.  397,  398). 
It  is  claimed  by  Christian  apologists  that  the 
grossest  intolerance  prevailed  in  Pagan  Rome, 
that  Christians  were  punished  for  their  opinions 


86  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

merely,  that  religious  freedom  was  denied.  The 
student  of  Roman  history  knows  this  to  be  un- 
true. Religious  intolerance  in  the  Roman  Em- 
pire was  virtually  unknown.  The  so-called  "Chris- 
tian persecutions"  are  mostly  Christian  myths, 
and  the  Christian  martyrs  of  the  early  church 
were  mostly  Christian  criminals.  To  this  Chris- 
tian claim  Jefferson  pertinently  replies: 

"Had  not  the  Roman  Government  permitted 
free  enquiry  Christianity  could  never  have  been 
introduced"  (Notes  on  Virginia,  p.  265). 

The  Fourth  of  July,  1826,  was  the  fiftieth  an- 
niversary of  the  Declaration  of  American  Inde- 
pendence. The  people  of  Washington  had  decid- 
ed to  celebrate  the  memorable  occasion  in  a  fit- 
ting manner,  and  Mr.  Weightman  was  deputed  to 
invite  the  illustrious  author  of  the  Declaration  to 
attend.  On  the  24th  of  June,  Jefferson  wrote  a 
letter  declining,  on  account  of  his  infirmities,  to 
be  present.  In  this  letter  a  new  Declaration  of 
Independence  is  proclaimed.    Bravely  he  writes: 

"All  eyes  are  opened  or  opening  to  the  rights  of 
man.  The  general  spread  of  the  light  of  science 
has  already  laid  open  to  every  view  the  palpable 
truth,  that  the  mass  of  mankind  has  not  been  born 
with  saddles  on  their  backs,  nor  a  favored  few 
booted  and  spurred,  ready  to  ride  them  legiti- 
mately, by  the  grace  of  God." 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  87 

Those  were  the  last  words  Jefferson  penned. 
Ten  days  later — on  the  day  that  he  had  con- 
tributed so  much  to  make  immortal — the  Sage  of 
Monticello  breathed  his  last.  On  the  same  day, 
too,  died  John  Adams.  Politically  at  variance 
these  men  differed  but  little  in  theology.  Writing 
to  Jefferson  on  the  5th  of  May,  1817,  Adams,  giv- 
ing expression  to  the  matured  conviction  of 
eighty-two  eventful  years,  declares., 

"This  would  be  the  best  of  all  possible  worlds 
if  there  were  no  religion  in  it." 

To  this  radical  declaration  Jefferson  replied: 

"If  by  religion,  we  are  to  understand  sectarian 
dogmas,  in  which  no  two  of  them  agree,  then  your 
exclamation  on  that  hypothesis  is  just,  'that  this 
would  be  the  best  of  worlds  if  there  were  no  re- 
ligion in  it'  "  (Works,  Vol.  iv.,  p.  301). 

Referring  to  another  letter  he  received  from 
Adams,  he  says: 

"Its  crowd  of  skepticisms  kept  me  from  sleep" 
(Ibid,  p.  331). 

Writing  to  Adams  in  1817,  Jefferson  says: 

"The  result  of  your  fifty  or  sixty  years  of  re- 
ligious reading  in  the  four  words:  'Be  just  and 
good,'  is  that  in  which  all  our  enquiries  must  end; 
as  the  riddles  of  all  the  priesthood  end  in  four 
more:  'Ubi  panis  ibi  Deus.'    What  all  agree  in  is 


88  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

probably  right;  what  no  two  agree  in  most  prob- 
ably wrong"  (Ibid,  p.  300). 

These  anti-Christian  views  of  Jefferson  were  for 
the  most  part  written  after  he  had  retired  to  pri- 
vate life;  but  that  the  public  had  always  been 
apprised  of  his  unbelief,  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
When  he  ran  for  President,  the  more  bigoted  or- 
thodox journals  opposed  his  election  upon  these 
grounds.  At  his  inauguration,  some  of  these  jour- 
nals appeared  in  mourning,  while  flags  were  dis- 
played at  half-mast,  in  token  of  grief  because  an 
Infidel  had  been  elevated  to  the  Presidency.  It  is 
true  that  Washington  and  Adams,  both  disbe- 
lievers in  Evangelical  Christianity,  had  filled  the 
ofiBce  before  him;  but  they  were  reticent  in  re- 
gard to  the  subject,  openly  expressing  no  opinions 
that  would  offend  the  church. 

That  Jefferson's  Deistic  opinions  were  well 
known  before  he  retired  from  public  life  is  shown 
by  a  letter  which  Paine  wrote  to  Jefferson  after 
his  re-election.    Paine  says: 

"When  I  was  in  Connecticut  the  summer  before 
last,  I  fell  in  company  with  some  Baptists  among 
whom  were  three  ministers.  The  conversation 
turned  on  the  election  for  President,  and  one  of 
them  who  appeared  to  be  a  leading  man  said, 
'They  cry  out  against  Mr.  Jefferson  because  they 
say  he  is  a  Deist.    Well,  a  Deist  may  be  a  good 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  89 

man,  and  if  he  think  it  right,  it  is  right  to  him. 
For  my  own  part,'  said  he,  'I  had  rather  vote  for 
a  Deist  than  for  a  blue-skin  Presbyterian.'  " 

Jefferson's  library  contained  the  leading 
Freethought  works  of  his  day.  They  gave  evidence 
of  having  been  carefully  studied,  and  the  margin- 
al annotations  from  his  pen  showed  that  the  most 
radical  sentiments  were  endorsed  by  him. 

He  wrote  letters  to  Volney,  and  placed  the  bust 
of  Voltaire  in  his  library.  He  manifested  the 
strongest  attachment  for  Paine,  which  continued 
till  the  latter's  death.  When  Paine  signified  his 
intention  of  returning  from  France  to  America, 
Jefferson  furnished  a  national  ship  to  convey  him 
home.  After  his  return  he  became  the  honored 
guest  of  the  President,  both  at  Washington  and 
Monticello. 

Alluding  to  Paine's  visit  to  Washington,  the 
editor  of  the  "Diary  and  Letters  of  Gouverneur 
Morris"  says  that  "Jefferson  received  him  warmly, 
dined  him  at  the  White  House,  and  could  be  seen 
walking  arm  in  arm  with  him  on  the  street  any 
fine  afternoon."  This  was  eight  years  after  Paine 
published  his  "Age  of  Eeason,"  and  when  in  the 
eyes  of  Christians  he  had  become  infamous. 

President  Jefferson  continued  to  correspond 
with  Paine  on  theological  subjects  up  to  Paine'a 


90  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

last  illness,  which  occurred  about  the  time  he  re- 
tired from  the  Presidency. 

To  Paine  and  the  great  English  Deist,  Boling- 
broke,  Jefferson  paid  the  following  tribute: 

"You  ask  my  opinion  of  Lord  Bolingbroke  and 
Thomas  Paine.  They  were  alike  in  making  bitter 
enemies  of  the  priests  and  Pharisees  of  their  day. 
Both  were  honest  men;  both  advocates  for  human 
liberty"  (Letter  to  Francis  Eppes). 

To  the  English  heretic.  Dr.  Priestley,  he  extend- 
ed the  following  welcome: 

"It  is  with  heartfelt  satisfaction  that  in  the 
first  moments  of  my  public  action,  I  can  hail  you 
with  welcome  to  our  land,  tender  to  you  the  hom- 
age of  its  respect  and  esteem,  and  cover  you  under 
the  protection  of  those  laws  which  were  made  for 
the  good  and  the  wise  like  you." 

When  Jefferson's  works  were  first  published, 
the  New  York  Observer,  then  the  leading  Chris- 
tian journal  of  this  country,  gave  them  the  follow- 
ing notice: 

"Mr.  Jefferson,  it  is  well  known,  was  never  sus- 
pected of  being  very  friendly  to  orthodox  religion, 
but  these  volumes  prove  not  only  that  he  was  a 
disbeliever,  but  a  scoffer  of  the  very  lowest  class." 

What  is  remarkable,  the  Observer  has  never 
claimed  that  Jefferson  recanted;  while  it  has 
elaimed  that  Paine  did.  According  to  this  author- 


THOMAS  JEPFIESON.  91 

ity  Jefferson  was  more  confirmed  in  his  disbelief 
than  Paine. 

The  clergy  circulated  a  story  to  the  effect  that 
Jefferson  admitted  his  indebtedness  to  the  church 
by  declaring  that  it  was  to  a  preacher,  Dr.  Small, 
of  William  and  Mary  College,  that  he  owed  the 
destinies  of  his  life.  Being  in  doubt  as  to  whether 
the  Dr.  Small  referred  to  was  really  a  preacher 
or  not,  Mr.  Wm.  Edmonds,  of  Texas,  in  1887,  ad- 
dressed a  letter  to  Governor  Fitzhugh  Lee,  of 
Virginia,  on  the  subject.  Gov.  Lee  instructed  his 
private  secretary,  Mr.  J.  E.  Waller,  to  send  the 
following  reply: 

"The  Governor  directs  me  to  say,  in  reply  to 
your  letter  of  inquiry  of  August  26th,  that,  from 
the  best  information  he  can  get,  he  is  satisfied 
that  Dr.  Small  was  either  an  M.  D.,  or  scientist, 
which  would  entitle  him  to  the  degree  of  Doctor. 
Mr.  Jefferson  was  a  Freethinker,  and,  as  there 
is  no  record  of  Dr.  Small  ever  having  a  church  in 
Virginia,  the  natural  conclusion  is  that  this  Dr. 
Small  was  of  the  same  belief.  John  Randolph 
claims  to  have  imbibed  some  of  his  skeptical  ideas 
from  a  Dr.  Small." 

The  Rev.  Thornton  Stringfellow,  D.  D.,  a  promi- 
nent Christian  divine  of  Jefferson's  own  state,  in 
his  "Scriptural  View  of  Slavery,"  a  work  showing 
that  the  Bible  sanctions  slavery,  says: 


92  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

"My  correspondent  thinks  with  Mr.  Jefferson, 
that  Jehovah  has  no  attributes  that  will  harmon- 
ize with  slavery;  and  that  all  men  are  born  free 
and  equal.  Now,  I  say  let  him  throw  away  his 
Bible  as  Mr.  Jefferson  did  his  and  then  they  will 
be  fit  companions.  But  never  disgrace  the  Bible 
by  making  Mr.  Jefferson  its  expounder,  nor  Mr. 
Jefferson  by  deriving  his  sentiments  from  it.  Mr. 
Jefferson  did  not  bow  to  the  authority  of  the 
Bible,  and  on  this  subject  I  do  not  bow  to  him." 

John  S.  C.  Abbot,  the  panegyrist  of  Napoleon 
Bonaparte,  in  his  "Lives  of  the  Presidents"  (p. 
142),  referring  to  one  of  Jefferson's  most  distin- 
guished efforts  in  behalf  of  religious  liberty, 
says: 

"He  devoted  much  attention  to  the  establish- 
ment of  the  University  at  Charlottesville.  Having 
no' religious  faith  which  he  was  willing  to  avow, 
he  was  not  willing  that  any  religious  faith  what- 
ever should  be  taught  in  the  University  as  a  part 
of  its  course  of  instruction.  This  establishment, 
in  a  Christian  land,  of  an  institution  for  the  edu- 
cation of  youth,  where  the  relation  existing  be- 
tween man  and  his  Maker  was  entirely  ignored, 
raised  a  general  cry  of  disapproval  throughout 
the  whole  country.  It  left  a  stigma  upon  the  repu- 
tation of  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  the  minds  of  Christian 
people,  which  can  never  be  effaced." 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  93 

The  noted  divine,  Dr.  Wilson,  in  his  celebrated 
sermon  on  "The  Religion  of  the  Presidents,"  has 
this  to  say  of  Jefferson: 

"Whatever  difference  of  opinion  there  may  have 
been  as  to  his  religious  faith  at  the  time  [of  his 
election  to  the  Presidency],  it  is  now  rendered 
certain  that  he  was  a  Deist.  .  .  .  That  fact  after 
his  *Xotes  on  Virginia'  ought  never  to  have  been 
doubted  by  any  reasonable  man.  That  work  itself 
contains  sufficient  evidence  of  the  fact,  and  I  be- 
lieve the  influence  of  his  example  and  name  has 
done  more  for  the  extension  of  Infidelity  than 
that  of  any  other  man.  Since  his  death,  and  the 
publication  of  Randolph,  [Jefferson's  Works,] 
there  remains  not  the  shadow  of  doubt  of  his  Infi- 
del principles.  If  any  man  thinks  there  is,  let 
him  look  at  the  book  itself.  I  do  not  recommend 
the  purchase  of  it  to  any  man,  for  it  is  one  of  the 
most  wicked  and  dangerous  books  extant." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  D.  J.  Burrell,  of  Xew  York,  recent- 
ly said: 

"No  man  could  be  elected  President  of  the 
United  States  to-day  who  is  an  avowed  opponent 
of  Christianity.  Thomas  Jefferson  would  not  be 
an  available  candidate  to-day  for  either  party." 

The  "International  Cyclopedia,"  edited  by 
Daniel  Coit  Oilman,  LL.  D.,  President  of  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  says: 


94  THE  FATHERS  OP  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

"In  religion  it  is  probable  that  he  [Jefferson] 
was  not  far  from  what  was  then  known  and  exe- 
crated as  a  Freethinker." 

The  "New  American  Cyclopedia,"  In  its  edition 
of  1860,  makes  the  following  frank  and  truthful 
statement  of  Jefferson's  belief: 

"Discarding  faith  as  unphilosophieal,  he  be- 
came an  Infidel." 

This  statement  was  offensive  to  some,  and  the 
edition  of  1874  substituted  the  following  which 
means  the  same  thing: 

"He  carried  the  rule  of  subjecting  everything 
to  the  test  of  abstract  reason  into  matters  of  re- 
ligion, venerating  the  moral  character  of  Christ, 
but  refusing  belief  in  his  divine  mission." 

Bancroft,  referring  to  Jefferson,  says: 

"He  was  not  only  a  hater  of  priestcraft  and 
superstition  and  bigotry  and  intolerance,  he  was 
thought  to  be  indifferent  to  religion"  (History  of 
United  States,  Vol.  v.,  p.  323). 

Benson  J.  Lossing,  in  his  "Lives  of  the  Signers 
of  the  Declaration  of  American  Independence," 
sums  up  the  religious  and  moral  character  of 
Jefferson  in  the  following  brief  words: 

"In  religion  he  was  a  Freethinker;  in  morals 
pure  and  unspotted"  (p.  183). 

Morse,  in  his  "Life  of  Jefferson,"  which  forms  a 
part  of  the  "American  Statesman"  series,  says: 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  95 

"To  my  mind  it  is  very  clear  that  Jefferson 
never  believed  that  Christ  was  other  than  a  hu- 
man moralist"  (p.  341). 

Tucker,  in  his  biography  of  Jefferson,  says: 

"It  is  very  certain  that  he  did  not  believe  at  all 
in  the  divine  origin  of  Christianity,  and  of  course 
not  in  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures;  even  of 
the  New  Testament." 

Theodore  Dwight,  in  "The  Character  of  Jef- 
ferson," (p.  364)  gives  expression  to  the  following 
sensible  conclusion: 

"It  cannot  be  necessary  to  adopt  any  train  of 
reasoning  to  show  that  a  man  who  disbelieves  the 
inspiration  and  divine  authority  of  the  Scriptures 
— who  not  only  denies  the  divinity  of  the  Savior, 
but  reduces  him  to  the  grade  of  an  uneducated, 
ignorant  and  erring  man — who  calls  the  God  of 
Abraham  (the  Jehovah  of  the  Bible),  a  cruel  and 
remorseless  being,  cannot  be  a  Christian." 

In  an  article  on  Jefferson's  religious  belief,  the 
Chicago  Tribune  says: 

"A  question  has  been  raised  as  to  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson's religious  views.  There  need  be  no  ques- 
tion, for  he  has  settled  that  himself.  He  was  an 
Infidel,  or,  as  he  chose  to  term  it,  a  Materialist. 
By  his  own  account  he  was  as  heterodox  as  Col. 
Ingersoll,  and  in  some  respects  even  more  so.'^ 

Surely,  Christians,  your  cause  must  be  growing 


96  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

desperate,  when,  to  sustain  it,  you  must  needs 
claim  for  its  support  so  bitter  an  enemy  as 
Thomas  Jefferson — a  man  who  affirmed  that  he 
was  a  Materialist;  a  man  who  recognized  in  your 
religion  only  ^'our  particular  superstition,"  a 
superstition  without  "one  redeeming  feature;"  a 
man  who  divided  the  Christian  world  into  two 
classes — hypocrites  and  fools;  a  man  who  assert- 
ed that  your  Bible  is  a  book  abounding  with  "vul- 
gar ignorance;"  a  man  who  termed  your  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  a  "hocus-pocus  phantasm;" 
a  man  who  denounced  your  God  as  "cruel,  vindic- 
tive, and  unjust;"  a  man  who  intimated  that  your 
Savior  was  "a  man  of  illegitimate  birth;"  a  man 
who  declared  his  disciples,  including  your  oracle, 
Paul,  to  be  a  "band  of  dupes  and  impostors,"  and 
who  characterized  your  modern  priesthood  as 
"cannibal  priests"  and  an  "abandoned  confeder- 
acy" against  public  happiness. 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON. 

During  the  presidential  campaign  of  1880,  the 
Christian  Union  made  the  startling  admission 
that,  of  the  nineteen  men  who,  up  to  that  time, 
had  held  the  office  of  President  of  the  United 
States,  not  one,  with  the  possible  exception  of 
Washington,  had  ever  been  a  member  of  a  Chris- 
tian church. 

Was  Washington  a  church  member?  Was  he 
in  any  sense  a  Christian?  In  early  life  he  held  a 
formal  adherence  to  the  church  of  England,  serv- 
ing, for  a  time,  as  a  vestryman  in  the  parish  in 
which  he  resided.  But  this  being  merely  a  tem- 
poral office  did  not  necessitate  his  being  a  com- 
municant, nor  even  a  believer  in  Christianity.  In 
his  maturer  age  he  was  connected  with  no  church. 
Washington,  the  young  Virginia  planter,  might, 
perhaps,  with  some  degree  of  truthfulness,  have 
been  called  a  Christian;  Washington,  the  soldier, 
statesman  and  sage,  was  not  a  Christian,  but  a 
Deist. 

This  great  man,  like  most  men  in  public  life, 
was  reticent  respecting  his  religious  views.    This 

101 


102  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

rendered  a  general  knowledge  of  his  real  belief 
impossible,  and  made  it  easy  for  zealous  Chris- 
tians to  impose  upon  the  public  mind  and  claim 
him  for  their  faith.  Whatever  evidence  of  his  un- 
belief existed  was,  as  far  as  possible,  suppressed. 
Enough  remains,  however,  to  prompt  me  to  at- 
tempt the  task  of  proving  the  truth  of  the  follow- 
ing propositions: 

1.  That  Washington  was  not  a  Christian  com- 
municant. 

2.  That  he  was  not  a  believer  in  the  Christian 
religion. 

WAS    WASHtNGTON    A     COMMUNICANT? 

Washington  was  not  a  communicant.  This  fact 
can  be  easily  demonstrated.  A  century  ago  it 
was  the  custom  of  all  classes,  irrespective  of  their 
religious  beliefs,  to  attend  church.  Washington, 
adhering  to  the  custom,  attended.  But  when  the 
administration  of  the  sacrament  took  place,  in- 
stead of  remaining  and  partaking  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  as  a  communicant  would  have  done,  he 
invariably  arose  and  retired  from  the  church. 

The  closing  years  of  his  life,  save  the  last  two, 
were  passed  in  Philadelphia,  he  being  then  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States.  In  addition  to  his  eight 
years'  incumbency  of  the  presidency,  he  was,  dur- 
ing the  eight  years  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  and 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  103 

also  during  the  six  years  that  elapsed  between  the 
Kevolution  and  the  establishment  of  the  Federal 
gOYernment,  not  only  a  frequent  visitor  in 
Philadelphia,  but  during  a  considerable  portion  of 
the  time  a  resident  of  that  city.  While  there  he 
attended  the  Episcopal  churches  of  which  the 
Rev.  William  White  and  the  Rev.  James  Aber- 
crombie  were  rectors.  In  regard  to  his  being  a 
communicant,  no  evidence  can  be  so  pertinent  or 
so  decisive  as  that  of  his  pastors. 

Bishop  White,  the  father  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  church  of  America,  is  one  of  the  most 
eminent  names  in  church  history.  During  a  large 
portion  of  the  period  covering  nearly  a  quarter  of 
a  century,  Washington,  with  his  wife,  attended 
the  churches  in  which  Bishop  White  officiated. 
In  a  letter  dated  Fredericksburg,  Aug.  13,  1835, 
Colonel  Mercer  sent  Bishop  White  the  following 
inquiry  relative  to  this  question: 

"I  have  a  desire,  my  dear  Sir,  to  know  whether 
Gen.  Washington  was  a  communicant  of  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  church,  or  whether  he  occasion- 
ally went  to  the  communion  only,  or  if  ever  he 
did  so  at  all.  .  .  .  No  authority  can  be  so  au- 
thentic and  complete  as  yours  on  this  point." 

To  this  inquiry  Bishop  White  replied  as  fol- 
lows: 


104  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

"Philadelphia,  Aug.  15,  1835. 
"Dear  Sir:  In  regard  to  the  subject  of  your 
inquiry,  truth  requires  me  to  say  that  Gen.  Wash- 
ington never  received  the  communion  in  the 
churches  of  which  I  am  the  parochial  minister. 
Mrs.  Washington  was  an  habitual  communicant. 
....  I  have  been  written  to  by  many  on  that 
point,  and  have  been  obliged  to  answer  them  aa 
I  now  do  you.    I  am  respectfully. 

"Your  humble  servant, 

"WILLIAM  W^HITE." 
—(Memoir  of  Bishop  White,  pp.  19G,  197). 

In  a  standard  Christian  authority,  Sprague's 
"Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit,"  written  and 
compiled  by  Rev.  Wm.  B.  Sprague,  D.  D.,  is  a 
sketch  of  the  life  of  Rev.  James  Abercrombie,  D. 
D.  In  this  biographical  sketch  is  to  be  found 
some  very  important  evidence  from  the  pen  of 
Washington's  other  pastor,  pertaining  to  the  sub- 
ject under  consideration.    I  quote  the  following: 

"One  incident  in  Dr.  Abercrombie's  experience 
as  a  clergyman,  in  connection  with  the  Father  of 
his  Country,  is  especially  worthy  of  record;  and 
the  following  account  of  it  was  given  by  the  Doc- 
tor himself,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  in  1831  shortly 
after  there  had  been  some  public  allusion  to  it: 
'With  respect  to  the  inquiry  you  make  I  can  only 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  105 

state  the  following  facts;  that,  as  pastor  of  the 
Episcopal  church,  observing  that,  on  sacramental 
Sundays,  Gen.  Washington,  immediately  after 
the  desk  and  pulpit  services,  went  out  with  the 
greater  part  of  the  congregation — always  leaving 
Mrs.  Washington  with  the  other  communicants — 
she  invariably  being  one — I  considered  it  my  duty 
in  a  sermon  on  Public  Worship,  to  state  the  un- 
happy tendency  of  example,  particularly  of  those 
in  elevated  stations  who  uniformly  turned  their 
backs  upon  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 
I  acknowledge  the  remark  was  intended  for  the 
President;  and  as  such  he  received  it.  A 
few  days  after,  in  conversation  with,  I  believe,  a 
senator  of  the  United  States,  he  told  me  he  had 
dined  the  day  before  with  the  President,  who  in 
the  course  of  conversation  at  table  said  that  on 
the  preceding  Sunday  he  had  received  a  very  just 
reproof  from  the  pulpit  for  always  leaving  the 
church  before  the  administration  of  the  Sacra- 
ment; that  he  honored  the  preacher  for  his  in- 
tegrity and  candor;  that  he  had  never  sufficiently 
considered  the  influence  of  his  example,  and  that 
he  would  not  again  give  cause  for  the  repetition 
of  the  reproof;  and  that,  as  he  had  never  been  a 
communicant,  were  he  to  become  one  then  it 
would  be  imputed  to  an  ostentatious  display  of 
religious  zeal,  arising  altogether  from  his  elevated 


106  THE  FATHERS  OP  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

station.  Accordingly,  he  never  afterwards  came 
on  the  morning  of  sacramental  Sunday,  though 
at  other  times  he  was  a  constant  attendant  in  the 
morning'"  (Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit,  Vol. 
V,  p.  394). 

Here  we  have  a  confirmation  of  the  statement 
previously  made  that  Washington  absented  him- 
self from  church  on  sacramental  Sundays;  un- 
deniable proof  that  during  the  later  years  of  his 
life  he  was  not  a  communicant;  and,  above  all, 
the  assurance  of  Washington  himself  that  "he 
had  never  been  a  communicant." 

The  Rev.  E.  D.  Neill,  in  the  Episcopal  Recorder, 
the  organ  of  the  church  of  which  it  is  claimed 
Washington  was  a  communicant,  says : 

"As  I  read,  a  few  days  ago,  of  the  death  of  the 
Rev.  Richard  M.  Abercrombie,  rector  of  St.  Mat- 
thew's Protestant  Episcopal  church  in  Jersey  City, 
memories  of  my  boyhood  arose.  He  was  born  not 
far  from  my  father's  house  in  Philadelphia  and 
was  the  son  of  the  Rev.  James  Abercrombie,  a 
fine  scholar  and  preacher,  who  had  in  early  life 
corresponded  with  the  great  lexicographer.  Dr. 
Samuel  Johnson,  and  in  later  years  was  the  as- 
sistant minister  of  Christ's  and  St.  Peter's 
churches,  in  Philadelphia,  where  my  maternal 
ancestors  had  worshiped  for  more  than  one  gen- 
eration.    One  day,  after  the  father  had  reached 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  107 

four  score  years,  the  lately  deceased  son  took  me 
into  the  study  of  the  aged  man,  and  showed  me  a 
letter  which  President  George  Washington  had 
written  to  his  father,  thanking  him  for  the  loan 
of  one  of  his  manuscript  sermons.  Washington 
and  his  wife  were  regular  attendants  upon  his 
ministry  while  residing  in  Philadelphia.  The 
President  was  not  a  communicant,  notwithstand- 
ing all  the  pretty  stories  to  the  contrary,  and  after 
the  close  of  the  sermon  on  sacramental  Sundays, 
had  fallen  into  the  habit  of  retiring  from  the 
church  while  his  wife  remained  and  communed." 

Referring  to  Dr.  Abercrombie's  reproof  of 
Washington,  Mr.  Neill  says: 

"Upon  one  occasion  Dr.  Abercrombie  alluded  to 
the  unhappy  tendency  of  the  example  of  those  dig- 
nified by  age  and  position  turning  their  backs 
upon  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  The 
discourse  arrested  the  attention  of  Washington, 
and  after  that  he  never  came  to  church  with  his 
wife  on  Communion  Sunday." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Wilson,  in  his  famous  sermon  on 
the  Religion  of  the  Presidents,  also  alludes  to  thiy 
subject.    He  says: 

"When  the  Congress  sat  in  Philadelphia,  Presi- 
dent Washington  attended  the  Episcopal  church. 
The  rector.  Dr.  Abercrombie,  told  me  that  on  the 
days  when  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper 


108  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUE  REPUBLIC. 

was  to  be  administered,  Washington's  custom  was 
to  rise  just  before  the  ceremony  commenced,  and 
walk  out  of  church.  This  became  a  subject  of 
remark  in  the  congregation,  as  setting  a  bad  ex- 
ample. At  length  the  Doctor  undertook  to  speak 
of  it,  with  a  direct  allusion  to  the  President. 
Washington  was  heard  afterwards  to  remark  that 
this  was  the  first  time  a  clergyman  had  thus 
preached  to  him,  and  he  should  henceforth 
neither  trouble  the  Doctor  nor  his  congregation 
on  such  occasions;  and  ever  after  that,  upon  com- 
munion days,  he  'absented  himself  altogether 
from  the  church.'  " 

The  Rev.  Bird  Wilson,  D.  D.,  author  of  the 
"Memoir  of  Bishop  White,"  says: 

"Though  the  General  attended  the  churches  in 
which  Dr.  White  oflQciated,  whenever  he  was  in 
Philadelphia  during  the  Revolutionary  war,  and 
afterwards  while  President  of  the  United  States, 
he  never  was  a  communicant  in  them"  (Memoir 
of  Bishop  White,  p.  188). 

The  Rev.  Beverly  Tucker,  D.  D.,  of  the  Episco- 
pal church,  has  attempted  to  prove  that  Wash- 
ington was  a  churchman.  But  while  professing 
to  believe  that  he  was  a  communicant  before  the 
Revolution  he  is  compelled  to  admit  that  there 
is  a  doubt  about  his  communing  after  the  Rev- 
olution,   lie  says: 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  109 

"The  doubt  has  been  raised  partly  on  the 
strength  of  a  letter  written  by  Bishop  White  in 
1832.  He  says  that  Washington  attended  St. 
Peter's  church  one  winter,  during  the  session  of 
the  Continental  Congress,  and  that  during  his 
Presidency  he  had  a  pew  in  Christ  church,  'which 
was  habitually  occupied  by  himself,  by  Mrs. 
Washington,  who  was  regularly  a  communicant, 
and  by  his  secretaries.  This  language  is  taken 
to  mean,  and  probably  correctly,  that  Washington 
did  not  commune." 

Dr.  Tucker  is  evidently  not  acquainted  with 
P>ishop  White's  letter  to  Col.  Mercer  in  1835. 
There  is  no  question  as  to  the  meaning  of  that 
letter.    Continuing,  Dr.  Tucker  says: 

"The  doubt  rests  again  on  the  recollection  of 
Mrs.  Fielding  Lewis,  Nelly  Custis,  Gen.  Washing- 
ton's step-granddaughter,  written  in  1833,  who 
states  that  after  the  Mount  Vernon  family  re- 
moved from  Pohick  church  to  Christ  church, 
Alexandria,  the  General  was  accustomed,  on  Com- 
munion Sundays,  to  leave  the  church  with  her, 
sending  the  carriage  back  for  Mrs.  Washington." 

Washington's  biographer,  the  Rev.  Jared 
Sparks,  who  seems  to  have  entertained  the  popu- 
lar notion  that  Washington  was  in  early  life  a 
communicant,  admits  that  at  a  latter  period  he 
ceased  to  commune.    He  says: 


110  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

''The  circumstance  of  his  withdrawing  himself 
from  the  communion  service  at  a  certain  period 
of  his  life  has  been  remarked  as  singular.  This 
may  be  admitted  and  regretted,  both  on  account 
of  his  example  and  the  value  of  his  opinions  as 
to  the  importance  and  practical  tendency  of  this 
rite"  (Life  of  Washington,  Vol.  ii,  p.  361). 

Origen  Bacheler,  in  his  debate  with  Robert 
Dale  Owen  in  1S31,  made  an  effort  to  prove  that 
Washington  was  a  Christian  communicant.  He  ap- 
pealed for  help  to  the  Rev.  Wm.  Jackson,  rector 
of  the  Episcopal  church  of  Alexandria,  the  church 
which  Washington  had  attended.  Mr.  Jackson 
was  only  too  willing  to  aid  him.  He  instituted  an 
exhaustive  investigation  for  the  purpose  of  dis- 
covering if  possible  some  evidence  of  Washington 
having  been  a  communicant.  Letters  of  inquiry 
were  addressed  to  his  relatives  and  friends.  But 
his  efforts  were  unsuccessful.  While  he  professed 
to  believe  that  Washington  was  a  Christian,  he 
was  compelled  to  say: 

"I  find  no  one  who  ever  communed  with  him" 
(Bacheler-Owen  Debate,  Vol.  ii,  p.  262). 

This,  as  might  be  supposed,  did  not  satisfy  Mr. 
Bacheler,  and  he  entreated  the  rector  to  make  an- 
other attempt.  The  second  attempt  was  as  fruit- 
less as  the  first.    He  writes: 

"I  am  sorry  after  so  long  a  delay  in  replying  to 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  Ill 

your  last,  that  it  is  not  in  my  power  to  communi- 
cate something  decisive  in  reference  to  General 
Washington's  church  membership"  (Ibid.,  ii,  p. 
370.) 

In  the  same  letter  Mr.  Jackson  says: 

"Nor  can  I  find  any  old  person  who  ever  com- 
muned with  him."  « 

The  "People's  Library  of  Information"  con- 
tains the  following: 

"The  question  has  been  raised  as  to  w^hether 
any  one  of  our  Presidents  was  a  communicant  in 
a  Christian  church.  There  is  a  tradition  that 
Washington  asked  permission  of  a  Presbyterian 
minister  in  New  Jersey  to  unite  in  communion. 
But  it  is  only  a  tradition.  Washington  was  a  ves- 
tryman in  the  Episcopal  church.  But  that  office 
required  no  more  piety  than  it  would  to  be  mate 
of  a  ship.  There  is  no  account  of  his  communing 
in  Boston,  or  in  New  York,  or  Philadelphia,  or 
elsewhere,  during  the  Revolutionary  struggle." 

The  tradition  of  Washington's  wishing  to  unite 
with  a  Presbyterian  minister  in  communion,  like 
many  other  so-called  traditions  of  the  same  char- 
acter, has  been  industriously  circulated.  And  yet 
it  is  scarcely  possible  to  conceive  of  a  more  im- 
probable story.  Refusing  to  commune  with  the 
members  of  the  church  in  which  he  was  raised, 
and  the  church  he  was  in  the  habit  of  attending, 


112  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

and  going  to  the  priest  of  another  church — a 
stranger — and  asking  to  commune  with  him!  Had 
Washington  been  some  intemperate  vagabond, 
the  story  might  have  been  believed.  But  Washing- 
ton was  not  an  inebriate,  and  was  never  so 
pressed  for  a  drink  as  to  beg  a  sup  of  sacramental 
wine  from  a  Calvinistic  clergyman. 

Gen.  A.  W.  Greely,  U.  S.  A.,  in  an  article  on 
^'Washington's  Domestic  and  Religious  Life" 
which  was  published  in  the  Ladies'  Home  Journal 
for  April,  1896,  says: 

"But  even  if  he  was  ever  confirmed  in  its  [the 
Episcopal]  faith  there  is  no  reliable  evidence  that 
he  ever  took  communion  with  it  or  with  any  other 
church." 

Some  years  ago,  I  met  at  Paris,  Texas,  an  old 
gentlemen,  Mr.  F.  W.  Miner,  who  was  born  and 
who  lived  for  a  considerable  time  near  Mt.  Ver- 
non. He  told  me  that  when  a  boy  he  was  once 
in  company  with  a  party  of  old  men,  neighbors 
in  early  life  of  Washington,  who  were  discussing 
the  question  of  his  religious  belief.  He  says  that 
it  was  admitted  by  all  of  them  that  he  was  not 
a  church  member,  and  by  the  most  of  them  that 
he  was  not  a  Christian. 

Mr.  George  Wilson  of  Lexington,  Mo.,  whose 
ancestors  owned  the  Custis  estate,  and  founded 
Alexandria,  where  Washington  attended  church, 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  113 

writes  as  follows:  "My  great-j»;raudmother  was 
Mary  Alexander,  daughter  of  'John  the  younger,' 
who  founded  Alexandria.  The  Alexander  pew  in 
Christ  church  was  next  to  Washington's,  and  an 
old  lady,  a  kinswoman  of  mine,  born  near  Alex- 
andria and  named  Alexander,  told  me  that  the 
tradition  in  the  Alexander  family  was  that  Wash- 
ington NEVER  took  communion." 

In  regard  to  Washington  being  a  vestryman, 
Mr.  Wilson  says:  "At  that  time  the  vestry  was 
the  county  court,  and  in  order  to  have  a  hand  in 
managing  the  affairs  of  the  county,  in  which  his 
large  property  lay,  regulating  the  levy  of  taxes, 
etc.,  Washington  had  to  be  a  vestryman." 

The  St.  Louis  Globe  contained  the  following 
in  regard  to  the  church  membership  of  Washing- 
ton: 

"It  is  a  singular  fact  that  much  as  has  been 
written  about  Washington,  particularly  with  re- 
gard to  his  superior  personal  virtue,  there  is  noth- 
ing to  show  that  he  was  ever  a  member  of  the 
church.  Ue  attended  divine  service,  and  lived  an 
honorable  and  exemplary  life,  but  as  to  his  being 
a  communicant,  the  record  is  surprisingly  doubt- 
ful." 

In  an  article  conceding  that  Washington  was 
not  a  communicant,  the  Western  Christian  Ad- 
vocate says: 


1141  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

"This  is  evident  and  convincing  from  the  Life  of 
Bishop  White,  bishop  of  the  Episcopal  church  in 
America  from  1787  to  1S3C.  Of  this  evidence  it 
has  been  well  said:  'There  does  not  appear  to  be 
any  such  undoubtable  evidence  existing.  The 
more  scrutinously  the  church  membership  of 
Washington  is  examined,  the  more  doubtful  it 
appears.  Bishop  White  seems  to  have  had  more 
intimate  relations  with  Washington  than  any 
clergyman  of  his  time.  His  testimony  outweighs 
any  amount  of  influential  argumentation  on  the 
question.' " 

The  following  is  a  recapitulation  of  the  salient 
points  in  the  preceding  testimony,  given  in  the 
words  of  the  witnesses.  It  is  in  itself  an  over- 
whelming refutation  of  the  claim  that  Washington 
was  a  communicant : 

"Gen.  Washington  never  received  the  com- 
munion in  the  churches  of  which  I  am  the  pa- 
rochial minister." — Bishop  White. 

"On  sacramental  Sundays,  Gen.  Washington, 
immediately  after  the  desk  and  pulpit  services, 
went  out  with  the  greater  part  of  the  congrega- 
tion."— Rev.  Dr.  Abercrombie. 

"After  that,  [Dr.  Abercrombie's  reproof,]  upon 
communion  days,  he  absented  himself  altogether 
from  the  church." — Rev.  Dr.  Wilson. 

"The  General  was  accustomed,  on  communion 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  115 

Sundays,  to  leave  the  church  with  her  [Nelly  Cus- 
tis],  sending  the  carriage  back  for  Mrs.  Washing- 
ton."— Rev.  Dr.  Beverly  Tucker. 

"He  never  w^as  a  communicant  in  them  [Dr. 
White's  churches]." — Rev.  Dr.  Bird  Wilson. 

"I  find  no  one  who  ever  communed  with  him." — 
Rev.  William  Jackson. 

"The  President  was  not  a  communicant." — Rev. 
E.  D.  Neill. 

"This  [his  ceasing  to  commune]  may  be  ad- 
mitted and  regretted." — Rev.  Jared  Sparks. 

"There  is  no  reliable  evidence  that  he  ever  took 
communion." — Gen.  A.  W.  Greely. 

"There  is  nothing  to  show  that  he  was  ever  a 
member  of  the  church." — St.  Louis  Globe. 

"I  have  never  been  a  communicant." — Wash- 
ington, quoted  by  Dr.  Abercrombie. 

The  claim  that  Washington  was  a  Christian 
communicant  must  be  abandoned;  the  claim 
that  he  was  a  believer  in  Christianity,  I  shall  en- 
deavor to  show,  is  equally  untenable. 

WAS    WASHINGTON  A    CHRISTIAN? 

In  the  political  documents,  correspondence,  and 
other  writings  of  Washington,  few  references  to 
the  prevailing  religion  of  his  day  are  found.  In 
no  instance  has  he  expressed  a  disbelief  in  the 
Christian  religion,  neither  can  there  be  found  in 


116  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLTO, 

all  his  writings  a  single  sentence  that  can  with 
propriety'  he  construed  into  an  acknowledgment 
of  its  claims.  Once  or  twice  he  refers  to  it  in  com- 
plimentary terms,  but  in  these  compliments  there 
is  nothing  inconsistent  with  the  conduct  ot  a  con- 
scientious Deist.  Religions,  like  their  adherents, 
possess  both  good  and  bad  qualities,  and  Christian- 
ity is  no  exception.  While  there  is  much  in  it 
deserving  the  strongest  condemnation,  there  is 
also  much  that  commands  the  respect  and  even 
challenges  the  admiration  of  Infidels.  Occupying 
the  position  that  Washington  did,  enjoying  as  he 
did  the  confidence  and  support  of  Christians,  it 
was  not  unnatural  that  he  should  indulge  in  a  few 
friendly  allusions  to  their  religious  faith. 

In  his  ''Farewell  Address,"  the  last  and  best 
political  paper  he  gave  to  the  public,  the  Chris- 
tian religion  is  not  once  named.  In  this  work  he 
manifests  the  fondest  solicitude  for  the  future  of 
his  country.  His  sentences  are  crowded  with 
words  of  warning  and  fatherly  advice.  But  he 
does  not  seem  to  be  impressed  with  the  idea  that 
the  safety  of  the  government  or  the  happiness  of 
the  people  depends  upon  Christianity.  He  recom- 
mends a  cultivation  of  the  religious  sentiment, 
but  evinces  no  partiality  for  the  popular  faith. 

In  the  absence  of  any  recorded  statements  from 
Washington  himself  concerning  his  religious  be- 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  117 

lief,  the  most  conclusive  evidence  that  can  be  pre- 
sented is  the  admissions  of  his  clerical  acquaint- 
ances. Among  these  there  has  been  preserved  the 
testimony  of  his  pastors,  Bishop  White  and  Dr. 
Abercrombie. 

In  a  letter  to  Rev.  B.  C.  C.  Parker  of  Massachu- 
setts, dated  Nov.  28,  1832,  in  answer  to  some  in- 
quiries respecting  Washington's  religion,  Bishop 
White  says: 

"His  behavior  [in  church]  was  always  serious 
and  attentive,  but  as  your  letter  seems  to  intend 
an  inquiry  on  the  point  of  kneeling  during  the 
service,  I  owe  it  to  the  truth  to  declare  that  I 
never  saw  him  in  the  said  attitude.  ,  .  .  Al- 
though I  was  often  in  company  with  this  great 
man,  and  had  the  honor  of  dining  often  at  his 
table,  I  never  heard  anything  from  him  which 
could  manifest  his  opinions  on  the  subject  of  re- 
ligion. .  .  .  Within  a  few  days  of  his  leaving 
the  presidential  chair,  our  vestry  waited  on  him 
with  an  address  prepared  and  delivered  by  me. 
In  his  answer  he  was  pleased  to  express  himself 
gratified  by  what  he  had  heard  from  our  pulpit; 
but  there  was  nothing  that  committed  him  rela- 
tively to  religious  theory"  ("Memoir  of  Bishop 
White,"  pp.  189-191;  Sparks'  "Life  of  Washing- 
ton," Vol.  ii.,  p.  359). 

The  Kev.  Parker,  to  whom  Bishop  White's  let- 


118  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUE  REPUBLIC. 

ter  is  addressed,  was,  it  seems,  anxious  to  obtain 
some  evidence  that  Washington  was  a  believer  in 
Christianity,  and,  not  satisfied  with  the  bishop's 
answer,  begged  him,  it  would  appear,  to  tax  his 
mind  for  some  fact  that  would  tend  to  show  that 
Washington  was  a  believer.  In  a  letter  dated 
Dec.  21,  1832,  the  bishop  writes  as  follows: 

"I  do  not  believe  that  any  degree  of  recollection 
will  bring  to  my  mind  any  fact  which  would  prove 
General  Washington  to  have  been  a  believer  in 
the  Chrisian  revelation  further  than  as  may  be 
hoped  from  his  constant  attendance  upon  Chris- 
tian worship,  in  connection  with  the  general  re- 
serve of  his  character"  ("Memoir  of  Bishop 
White,"  p.  193). 

Bishop  White's  testimony  does  not  afford  posi- 
tive proof  of  Washington's  unbelief,  but  it  cer- 
tainly furnishes  strong  presumptive  evidence  of 
its  truth.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  suppose  that  he 
could  have  been  a  believer  and  have  let  his  most 
intimate  Christian  associates  remain  in  total  ig- 
norance of  the  fact.  Bishop  White  indulges  a 
faint  hope  that  he  may  have  been,  but  this  hope  is 
simply  based  on  his  "constant  attendance"  at 
church,  and  when  we  consider  how  large  a  pro- 
portion of  those  who  attend  church  are  unbe- 
lievers, that  many  of  our  most  radical  Freethink- 
ers are  regular  church-goers,  there  are  very  small 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  119 

grounds,  I  think,  upon  which  to  indulge  even  a 
hope.  But  even  this  "constant  attendance"  on 
the  part  of  Washington  cannot  be  accepted  with- 
out some  qualification;  for,  while  it  is  true  that 
he  often  attended  church,  he  was  by  no  means  a 
constant  attendant.  Not  only  did  he  uniformly 
absent  himself  on  communion  days,  but  the  en- 
tries in  his  diary  show  that  he  remained  away  for 
several  Sundays  in  succession,  spending  his  time 
at  home  reading  and  writing,  riding  out  into  the 
country,  or  in  visiting  his  friends. 

But  if  Bishop  White  cherished  a  faint  hope  that 
Washington  had  some  faith  in  the  religion  of 
Christ,  Dr.  Abercrombie  did  not.  Long  after 
Washington's  death,  in  reply  to  Dr.  Wilson,  who 
had  interrogated  him  as  to  his  illustrious  audit- 
or's religious  views.  Dr.  Abercrombie's  brief  but 
emphatic  answer  was: 

"Sir,  Washington  was  a  Deist." 

Washington  rarely  attended,  as  we  ha'^e  seen, 
any  church  but  the  Episcopal,  hence,  if  any  de- 
nomination of  Christians  could  claim  him  as  an 
adherent,  it  was  this  one.  Yet  here  we  have  two 
of  its  most  distinguished  representatives,  pastors 
of  the  churches  which  he  attended,  the  one  not 
knowing  what  his  belief  was,  the  other  disclaim- 
ing him  and  asserting  that  he  was  a  Deist. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Wilson,  who  was  almost  a  con- 


120  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

temporary  of  our  earlier  statesmen  and  presi- 
dents, and  who  thoroughly  investigated  the  sub- 
ject of  their  religious  beliefs,  in  his  sermon  al- 
ready mentioned  affirmed  that  the  founders  of 
our  nation  were  nearly  all  Infidels,  and  that  of 
the  presidents  who  had  thus  far  been  elected — 
George  Washington,  John  Adams,  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson, James  Madison,  James  Monroe,  John 
Quincy  Adams,  and  Andrew  Jackson — not  one 
had  professed  a  belief  in  Christianity.  From  this 
sermon  I  quote  the  following: 

"When  the  war  was  over  and  the  victory  over 
our  enemies  won,  and  the  blessings  and  happiness 
of  liberty  and  peace  were  secured,  the  Constitu- 
tion was  framed  and  God  was  neglected.  He  was 
not  merely  forgotten.  He  was  absolutely  voted 
out  of  the  Constitution.  The  proceedings,  as  pub- 
lished by  Thompson,  the  secretary,  and  the  his- 
tory of  the  day,  show  that  the  question  was 
gravely  debated  whether  God  should  be  in  the 
Constitution  or  not,  and  after  a  solemn  debate  he 
was  deliberately  voted  out  of  it.  .  .  .  There  is 
not  only  in  the  theory  of  our  government  no 
recognition  of  God's  laws  and  sovereignty,  but  its 
practical  operation,  its  administration,  has  been 
conformable  to  its  theory.  Those  who  have  been 
called  to  administer  the  government  have  not 
been  men  making  any  public  profession  of  Chris- 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  121 

tianity.  .  .  .  WaBliington  was  a  man  of  valor 
and  wisdom,  lie  was  esteemed  by  the  whole 
world  as  a  great  and  good  man;  but  he  was  not  a 
professing  Christian." 

Dr.  Wilson's  sermon  was  published  in  the  Al- 
bany Daily  Advertiser  in  1831,  and  attract- 
ed the  attention  of  Robert  Dale  Owen,  then  a 
young  man,  wlio  called  to  see  its  author  in  regard 
to  his  statement  concerning  Washington's  belief. 
The  result  of  his  visit  is  given  in  a  letter  to  Amos 
Gilbert.  The  letter  is  dated  Albany,  November 
13,  1831,  and  was  published  in  New  York  a  fort- 
night later.    He  says: 

"I  called  last  evening  on  Dr.  Wilson,  as  I  told 
you  I  should,  and  I  have  seldom  derived  more 
pleasure  from  a  short  interview  with  anyone. 
I^nless  my  discernment  of  character  has  been 
grievously  at  fault,  I  met  an  honest  man  and  sin- 
cere Christian.  But  you  shall  have  the  particu- 
lars, A  gentleman  of  this  city  accompanied  me 
to  the  Doctor's  residence.  We  were  very  courte- 
ously received.  I  found  him  a  tall,  commanding 
figure,  with  a  countenance  of  much  benevolence, 
and  a  brow  indicative  of  deep  thought,  apparently 
approaching  fifty  years  of  age.  I  opened  the  in- 
terview by  stating  that  though  personally  a 
stranger  to  him,  I  had  taken  the  liberty  of  calling 
in  consequence  of  having  perused  an  interesting 


122  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

sermon  of  his,  which  had  been  reported  in  the 
Daily  Advertiser  of  this  city,  and  regarding  which, 
as  he  probably  knew,  a  variety  of  opinions  pre- 
vailed. In  a  discussion,  in  which  I  had  taken  a 
part,  some  of  the  facts  as  there  reported  had  been 
questioned;  and  I  wished  to  know  from  him 
whether  the  reporter  had  fairly  given  his  words 
or  not.  ...  I  then  read  to  him  from  a  copy 
of  the  Daily  Advertiser  the  paragraph  which  re- 
gards Washington,  beginning,  'Washington  was  a 
man,'  etc.,  and  ending,  'absented  himself  alto- 
gether from  the  church.'  'I  indorse,'  said  Dr.  Wil- 
son, with  emphasis,  'every  word  of  that.  Nay,  I 
do  not  wish  to  conceal  from  you  any  part  of  the 
truth,  even  what  I  have  not  given  to  the  public. 
Dr.  Abercrombie  said  more  than  I  have  repeated. 
At  the  close  of  our  conversation  on  the  subject 
his  emphatic  expression  was — for  I  well  remem- 
ber the  very  words — 'Sir,  Washington  was  a 
Deist.'  " 

In  concluding  the  interview,  Dr.  Wilson  said: 
**I  have  diligently  perused  every  line  that  Wash- 
ington ever  gave  to  the  public,  and  I  do  not  find 
one  expression  in  which  he  pledges  himself  as  a 
believer  in  Christianity.  I  think  anyone  who  will 
candidly  do  as  I  have  done,  will  come  to  the  con 
elusion  that  he  was  a  Deist  and  nothing  more." 

In  February,  1800,  a  few  weeks  after  Washing- 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  123 

ton's  death,  Jefferson  made  the  following  entry  in 
his  journal: 

"Dr.  Rush  told  me  (he  hacl  it  from  Asa  Green) 
that  when  the  clergy  addressed  General  Washing- 
ton, on  his  departure  from  the  government,  it  was 
observed  in  their  consultation  that  he  had  never, 
on  any  occasion,  said  a  word  to  the  public  which 
showed  a  belief  in  the  Christian  religion,  and  they 
thought  they  should  so  pen  their  address  as  to 
force  him  at  length  to  disclose  publicly  whether 
he  was  a  Christian  or  not.  However,  he  observed, 
the  old  fox  was  too  cunning  for  them.  He  an- 
swered every  article  of  their  address  particularly, 
except  that,  which  he  passed  over  without  notice" 
(Jefferson's  Works,  Vol.  iv.,  p.  572). 

Jefferson  further  says:  "I  know  that  Gouver- 
neur  Morris,  who  claimed  to  be  in  his  secrets, 
and  believed  himself  to  be  so,  has  often  told  me 
that  General  Washington  believed  no  more  in 
that  system  [Christianity]  than  he  did"  (Ibid). 

Gouverneur  Morris  was  the  principal  drafter  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States;  he  was  a 
member  of  the  Continental  Congress,  a  United 
States  senator  from  New  York,  and  minister  to 
France.  He  accepted,  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent, the  skeptical  views  of  French  Freethinkers. 

The  "Asa"  Green  mentioned  by  Jefferson  was 
undoubtedlv  the  Rev.  Ashbel  Green,  chaplain  to 


124  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

Congress  during  Washington's  administration.  In 
an  article  on  Washington's  religion,  contributed 
to  the  Chicago  Tribune,  B.  F.  Underwood  sajs: 

"If  there  were  an  Asa  Green  in  Washington's 
time  he  was  a  man  of  no  prominence,  and  it  is 
probable  the  person  referred  to  by  Jefferson  was 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Ashbel  Green,  who  served  as  chap- 
lain to  the  Congress  during  the  eight  years  that 
body  sat  in  Philadelphia,  was  afterwards  presi- 
dent of  Princeton  College,  and  the  only  clerical 
member  of  Congress  that  signed  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  His  name  shines  illustriously 
in  the  annals  of  the  Presbyterian  church  in  the 
United  States." 

Some  years  ago  I  received  a  letter  from  Hon. 
A.  B.  Bradford  of  Pennsylvania,  relative  to  Wash- 
ington's belief.  Mr.  Bradford  was  for  a  long  time 
a  prominent  clergyman  in  the  Presbyterian 
church,  and  was  appointed  a  consul  to  China  by 
President  Lincoln.  His  statements  help  to  cor- 
roborate the  statements  of  Dr.  Wilson,  Thomas 
Jefferson,  and  Mr.  Underwood.    He  says: 

"I  knew  Dr.  Wilson  personally,  and  have  en- 
tertained him  at  my  house,  on  which  occasion  ho 
said  in  my  hearing  what  my  relative,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Ashbel  Green  of  Philadelphia,  frequently  told  me 
in  his  study,  viz.,  that  during  the  time  that  Con- 
gress sat  in  that  city  the  clergy,  suspecting  from 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  125 

good  evidence  that  Washington  was  not  a  believer 
in  the  Bible  as  a  revelation  from  heaven,  laid  a 
plan  to  extort  from  him  a  confession,  either  pro  or 
con,  but  that  the  plan  failed.  Dr.  Green  was  chap- 
lain to  Congress  during  all  the  time  of  its  sitting 
in  Philadelphia;  dined  with  the  President  on 
special  invitation  nearly  every  week;  was  well 
acquainted  with  him,  and  after  he  had  been  dead 
and  gone  many  years,  often  said  in  my  hearing, 
though  very  sorrowfully,  of  course,  that  while 
Washington  was  very  deferential  to  religion  and 
its  ceremonies,  like  nearly  all  the  founders  of  the 
Republic,  he  was  not  a  Christian,  but  a  Deist." 

Mr.  Underwood's  article  contained  the  follow- 
ing from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Bradford: 

"It  was  during  his  [Dr.  Green's]  long  residence 
in  Philadelphia  that  I  became  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  him  as  a  relative,  student  of  the- 
ology at  Princeton,  and  a  member  of  the  same 
Presbytery  to  which  he  belonged.  .  .  .  Many  an 
hour  during  my  student  and  clergyman  days  did 
I  spend  with  him  in  his  study  at  No.  150  Pine 
street,  Philadelphia,  listening  to  his  interesting 
and  instructive  conversation  on  Revolutionary 
times  and  incidents.  I  recollect  well  that  during 
one  of  th  i^e  interviews  in  his  study  I  inquired  of 
him  what  were  the  real  opinions  Washington  en- 
tertained on  the  subject  of  religion.    He  promptly 


126  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

answered  pretty  nearly  in  the  language  which 
Jefferson  says  Dr.  Eush  used.  He  explained  more 
at  length  the  plan  laid  by  the  clergy  of  Phila- 
delphia at  the  close  of  Washington's  administra- 
tion as  President  to  get  his  views  of  religion  for 
the  sake  of  the  good  influence  they  supposed  they 
would  have  in  counteracting  the  Infidelity  of 
Paine  and  the  rest  of  the  Eevolutionary  patriots, 
military  and  civil.  But  I  well  remember  the 
smile  on  his  face  and  the  twinkle  of  his  black  eye 
when  he  said:  'The  old  fox  was  too  cunning  for 
us.'  He  affirmed,  in  concluding  his  narrative, 
that  from  his  long  and  intimate  acquaintance 
with  Washington  he  knew  it  to  be  the  ease  that 
while  he  respectfully  conformed  to  the  religious 
customs  of  society  by  generally  going  to  church 
on  Sundays,  he  had  no  belief  at  all  in  the  divine 
origin  of  the  Bible,  or  the  Jewish-Christian  re- 
ligion." 

The  testimony  of  General  Greely,  whose  thor- 
ough investigation  of  Washington's  religious  be- 
lief makes  him  an  authority  on  the  subject,  is 
among  the  most  important  yet  adduced.  From 
his  article  on  "Washington's  Domestic  and  Re- 
ligious Life"  I  quote  the  following  paragraphs: 

"The  effort  to  depict  Washington  as  very  de- 
vout from  his  childhood,  as  a  strict  Sabbatarian, 
and  as  in  intimate  spiritual  communication  with 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  127 

the  church  is  practically  contradicted  by  his  own 
letters." 

"In  his  letters,  even  those  of  consolation,  there 
appears  almost  nothing  to  indicate  his  spiritual 
frame  of  mind.  A  particularly  careful  study  of 
the  man's  letters  convinces  me  that  while  the 
spirit  of  Christianity,  as  exemplified  in  love  of 
God  and  love  of  man  [Theophilanthropy  or 
Deism],  was  the  controlling  factor  of  his  nature, 
yet  he  never  formulated  his  religious  faith." 

"It  is,  however,  somewhat  striking  that  in  sev- 
eral thousand  letters  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ 
never  appears,  and  it  is  notably  absent  from  his 
last  will." 

"His  services  as  a  vestryman  had  no  special 
significance  from  a  religious  standpoint.  The  po- 
litical affairs  of  a  Virginia  county  were  then  di- 
rected by  the  vestry,  which,  having  the  power  to 
elect  its  own  members,  was  an  important  instru- 
ment of  the  oligarchy  of  Virginia." 

"He  was  not  regular  in  attendance  at  church 
save  possibly  at  home.  While  present  at  the 
First  Provincal  Congress  in  Philadelphia  he  went 
once  to  the  Roman  Catholic  and  once  to  the  Epis- 
copal church.  He  spent  four  months  in  the  Consti- 
tutional Convention,  going  six  times  to  church, 
once    each    to    the    Romish    high    mass,    to  the 


128  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

Friends',  to  the  Presbyterian,  and  thrice  to  the 
Episcopal  service." 

"From  his  childhood  he  traveled  on  Sunday 
whenever  occasion  required.  He  considered  it 
proper  for  his  negroes  to  fish,  and  on  that  day 
made  at  least  one  contract.  During  his  official 
busy  life  Sunday  was  largely  given  to  his  home 
correspondence,  being,  as  he  says,  the  most  con- 
venient day  in  which  to  spare  time  from  his  pub- 
lic burdens  to  look  after  his  impaired  fortune  and 
estates." 

Dr.  Moncure  D.  Conway,  who  made  a  study  of 
Washington's  life  and  character,  who  had  access 
to  his  private  papers,  and  who  was  employed  to 
edit  a  volume  of  his  letters,  has  written  a  mono- 
graph on  "The  Religion  of  Washington,"  from 
which  I  take  the  following: 

"In  editing  a  volume  of  Washington's  private 
letters  for  the  Long  Island  Historical  Society,  I 
have  been  much  impressed  by  indications  that 
this  great  historic  personality  represented  the 
Liberal  religious  tendency  of  his  time.  That  ten- 
dency was  to  respect  religious  organizations  as 
part  of  the  social  order,  which  required  some  min- 
ister to  visit  the  sick,  bury  the  dead,  and  perform 
marriages.  It  was  considered  in  nowise  incon- 
sistent with  disbelief  of  the  clergyman's  doctrines 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  129 

to  contribute  to  his  support,  or  even  to  be  a  ves- 
tryman in  his  church." 

"In  his  many  letters  to  his  adopted  nephew  and 
young  relatives,  he  admonishes  them  about  their 
manners  and  morals,  but  in  no  case  have  I  been 
able  to  discover  any  suggestion  that  they  should 
read  the  Bible,  keep  the  Sabbath,  go  to  church,  or 
any  warning  against  Infidelity." 

"Washington  had  in  his  library  the  writings 
of  Paine,  Priestley,  Voltaire,  Frederick  the  Great, 
and  other  heretical  works." 

Conway  says  that  "Washington  was  glad  to 
have  Volnoy  as  his  guest  at  Mount  Vernon,"  and 
cited  a  letter  of  introduction  which  Washington 
gave  him  to  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  dur- 
ing his  travels  in  this  country. 

In  a  contribution  to  the  New  York  Times  Dr. 
Conway  says: 

"Augustine  Washington,  like  most  scholarly 
Virginians  of  his  time,  was  a  Deist.  .  .  .  Contem- 
porary evidence  shows  that  in  mature  life  Wash- 
ington was  a  Deist,  and  did  not  commune,  which 
is  quite  consistent  with  his  being  a  vestryman. 
In  England,  where  vestries  have  secular  func- 
tions, it  is  not  unusual  for  Unitarians  to  be  ves- 
trymen, thero  being  no  doctrinal  subscription  re- 
quired for  that  office.  Washington's  letters  dur- 
ing the  Revolution  occasionally  indicate  his  recog- 


130  THE  FATHERS  OP  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

nition  of  the  hand  of  Providence  in  notable  public 
events,  but  in  the  thousands  of  his  letters  I  have 
never  been  able  to  find  the  name  of  Christ  or  any 
reference  to  him." 

There  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  Washington, 
even  in  early  life,  was  a  believer  in  Christianity. 
The  contrary  is  rather  to  be  presumed.  His 
father,  as  Dr.  Conway  states,  was  a  Deist;  while 
his  mother  was  not  excessively  religious.  His 
brother,  Lawrence  Washington,  was,  it  is  claimed, 
the  first  advocate  of  religious  liberty  in  Virginia, 
and  evidently  an  unbeliever,  so  that  instead  of 
being  surrounded  at  home  by  the  stifling  atmos- 
phere of  superstition,  he  was  permitted  to  breathe 
the  pure  air  of  religious  freedom. 

It  is  certain  that  at  no  time  during  his  life  did 
he  take  any  special  interest  in  church  affairs. 
Gen,  Greely  says  that  "He  was  not  regular  in 
church  attendance  save  possibly  at  home."  At 
home  he  was  the  least  regular  in  his  attendance. 
His  diary  shows  that  he  attended  about  twelve 
times  a  year.  During  the  week  he  superintend- 
ed the  affairs  of  his  farm;  on  Sunday  he  usually 
attended  to  his  correspondence.  Sunday  visitors 
at  his  house  were  numerous.  If  he  ever  objected 
to  them  it  was  not  because  they  kept  him  from 
his  devotions,  but  because  they  kept  him  from 
his  work.    In  his  diary  he  writes: 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  131 

"It  hath  so  happened,  that  on  the  last  Sundays 
— call  them  the  first  or  seventh  [days]  as  you 
please,  I  have  been  unable  to  perform  the  latter 
duty  on  account  of  visits  from  strangers,  with 
whom  I  could  not  use  the  freedom  to  leave  alone, 
or  recommend  to  the  care  of  each  other,  for  their 
amusement." 

When  he  visited  his  distant  tenants  to  collect 
his  rent,  their  piety,  and  not  his,  prevented  him 
from  doing  the  business  on  Sunday,  as  the  follow- 
ing entry  in  his  diary  shows: 

"Being  Sunday,  and  the  people  living  on  my 
land  very  religious,  it  was  thought  best  to  post- 
pone going  among  them  till  to-morrow." 

His  diary  also  shows  that  he  "closed  land  pur- 
chases, sold  wheat,  and,  while  a  Virginia  planter, 
went  fox  hunting  on  Sunday." 

He  did  not,  like  most  pious  churchmen,  believe 
that  Christian  servants  are  better  than  others. 
When  on  one  occasion  he  needed  servants,  he 
wrote: 

"If  they  are  good  workmen,  they  may  be  from 
Asia,  Africa,  or  Europe;  they  may  be  Mahome- 
dans,  Jews,  or  Christians  of  any  sect,  or  they  may 
be  Atheists." 

These  extracts  contain  no  explicit  declarations 
of  disbelief  in  Christianity,  but  between  the  lines 
we  can  easily  read,  "I  am  not  a  Christian." 


132  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  he  ever  entertained 
any  special  reverence  for  the  Bible,  or  devoted 
any  particular  attention  to  its  teachings.  The 
writer  has  seen  Washington's  Bible  and  is  pre- 
pared to  vouch  for  the  correctness  of  the  follow- 
ing notice  of  it  w  hich  appeared  in  the  Washington 
Post: 

*lt  is  not  injured  inside,  the  leaves  are  not  dog- 
eared, nor  the  margins  marked,  and  it  does  not 
look  as  if  it  was  ever  used  at  all." 

Had  Washington  been  a  Christian  it  is  reason- 
able to  suppose  that  on  his  death-bed,  at  least,  he 
would  have  let  fall  from  his  lips  some  word  reveal- 
ing the  fact,  conscious  as  he  was  from  the  first 
that  his  illness  would  prove  fatal.  We  have  the 
certificate  of  Dr.  Craik  and  Dr.  Dick,  the  physicians 
who  attended  him  during  his  last  illness,  and  this 
shows  that  he  made  no  recognition  of  Christ  or 
Christianity.  This  is  corroborated  by  the  testi- 
mony of  his  private  secretary,  Mr.  Tobias  Lear. 

Thus  writes  Moncure  D.  Conway  of  his  last 
hours: 

"When  the  end  was  near,  Washington  said  to  a 
physician  present — an  ancestor  of  the  writer  of 
these  notes — ^I  am  not  afraid  to  go.'  With  his 
right  fingers  on  his  left  wrist  he  counted  his  own 
pulses,  which  beat  his  funeral  march  to  the  grave. 
*He  bore  his  distress,'  so  next  day  wrote  one  pres- 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  133 

ent,  'with  astonishing  fortitude,  and  conscious,  as 
he  declared,  several  hours  before  his  death,  of  his 
approaching  dissolution,  he  resigned  his  breath 
with  the  greatest  composure,  having  the  full  pos- 
session of  his  reason  to  the  last  moment.'  Mrs. 
Washington  knelt  beside  his  bed,  but  no  word 
passed  on  religious  matters.  With  the  sublime 
taciturnity  which  had  marked  his  life  he  passed 
out  of  existence,  leaving  no  act  or  word  which 
can  be  turned  to  the  service  of  superstition,  cant, 
or  bigotry"  (Open  Court). 

In  his  discussion  with  Bacheler,  Robert  Dale 
Owen  says: 

"When  I  spoke  of  Washington's  death-bed,  I 
had  the  account  of  an  eye-witness  lying  before  me. 
And  most  strongly  does  that  corroborate  my 
opinion  that  Washington's  religion  was  of  the 
most  liberal  stamp.  No  clergyman  around  his 
death-bed.  No  protestations  that  in  the  dying 
hour  religion  afforded  him  aid.  No  praying.  No 
repeating  texts.  No  asking  for  a  Bible  to  read  a 
chapter.  Not  a  syllable  about  the  redeeming  blood 
of  Christ,  or  the  saving  efficacy  of  divine  grace. 
Not  even  a  straw  for  the  orthodox  to  catch  at  and 
work  up  in  tract  form,  as  'The  dying  testimony  of 
that  distinguished  Christian,  George  Washington.' 
True,  the  father  of  his  country  died  the  death  of  a 
patriot;  he  died  as  he  had  lived,  in  dignity  and 


134  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

peace;  but  he  left  behind  him  not  one  word  to 
warrant  the  belief  that  he  was  other  than  a  sin- 
cere Deist." 

"It  has  been  confidently  stated  to  me,"  says 
Mr.  Owen,  "that  he  actually  refused  spiritual  aid 
when  it  was  proposed  to  send  for  a  clergyman." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Miller,  of  Birmingham,  England, 
who  devoted  much  time  to  an  investigation  of  this 
subject,  in  London  Notes  and  Queries,  says: 

"My  researches  do  not  enable  me  to  affirm  that 
Washington,  on  his  death-bed,  gave  evidence  of 
Christian  belief." 

In  the  last  hour  of  the  day,  on  the  last  day  of 
the  week,  in  the  last  month  of  the  year,  at  the 
end  of  a  long  and  illustrious  career,  with  the 
simple  words,  "I  am  not  afraid  to  go,"  the  hero  of 
a  dozen  battle-fields  surrendered. 

Every  child  is  familiar  with  the  story  of  Wash- 
ington praying  at  Valley  Forge.  The  Peter  Par- 
leys who  write  historical  romances  and  label 
them  "School  Histories"  have  repeated  it  as 
a  historical  fact.  But  it  is  false.  It  bears  the 
stamp  of  fiction  on  its  face,  and  is  of  itself  suffi- 
cient to  excite  the  suspicion  tluit  Washington  was 
not  a  religious  man.  Unable  to  prove  that  he  was 
in  the  habit  of  praying  in  public,  unable  to  cite  a 
single   instance   of   his   ever   having   uttered   a 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  135 

prayer  in  his  family,  this  pious  tale  was  fabri- 
cated. 

Referring  to  the  Sunday-school  stories  that 
have  been  related  of  Washington,  and  that  have 
gained  popular  credence,  the  Encyclopedia  Bri- 
tannica  says: 

"The  story  of  the  hatchet  and  the  cherry  tree, 
and  similar  tales,  are  quite  apocryphal,  having 
been  coined  by  Washington's  most  popular  biog- 
rapher, Weems." 

Of  all  these  apocryphal  tales  none  is  so  utterly 
unworthy  of  credit  as  is  this  fable  about  his  pray- 
ing at  Valley  Forge.  Intelligent  Christians  are 
ashamed  of  it.  The  Rev.  E.  D.  Neill,  whose  fath- 
er's uncle  owned  the  building  occupied  by  Wash- 
ington at  Valley  Forge,  thus  writes     : 

''There  is  a  story  about  Washington  being 
found  in  the  w^oods  in  winter  time  in  prayer  by 
the  owner  of  the  house  which  he  used  as  his  head- 
quarters at  Valley  Forge,  which  I  would  like  to 
believe,  if  it  were  not  so  improbable,  and  if  it  had 
not  first  been  put  in  print  by  the  eccentric  and  not 
very  accurate  Episcopal  minister.  Rev.  Morgan 
L.  Weems.  .  .  .  With  the  capacious  and  com- 
fortable house  at  his  disposal,  it  is  hardly  possible 
that  the  shy,  silent,  cautious  Washington  should 
leave  such  retirement  and  enter  the  leafless  woods, 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  winter  encampment  of  an 


136  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUB  REPUBLIC. 

army,  and  engage  in  audible  prayer"  (Episcopal 
Recorder). 

Alluding  to  the  same  subject,  Rev.  Minot  J. 
Savage,  in  a  sermon,  said: 

"The  pictures  that  represent  him  on  his  knees 
in  the  winter  forest  at  Valley  Forge  are  even  silly 
caricatures.  Washington  was,  at  least,  not  senti- 
mental, and  he  had  nothing  about  him  of  the 
Pharisee  that  displays  his  religion  at  street  cor- 
ners or  out  in  the  woods  in  the  sight  of  observers, 
or  where  his  portrait  could  be  taken  by  'our 
special  artist.'  " 

Moncure  D.  Conway,  whose  researches  enable 
him  to  speak  authoritatively,  makes  the  following 
statement,  which  will  be  a  profound  surprise  to 
the  student  of  Weems: 

"Many  clergymen  visited  him,  but  they  were 
never  invited  to  hold  family  prayers,  and  no  grace 
was  ever  said  at  table"  (Open  Court). 

General  Greely  says:  "When  he  was  urged  to 
have  public  prayers  in  camp,  so  as  to  excite  the 
curiosity  and  foster  the  conversion  of  the  Indians, 
he  ignored  the  recommendation"  (Ladies'  Home 
Journal). 

Washington  was  a  great  man  and  a  good  man, 
but  he  was  not  a  demi-god  nor  a  saint.  He  was 
entirely  human  and  possessed  of  human  virtues 
and  human  frailties.    If  the  churchmen  could  read 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  137 

his  diary,  and  read  the  testimony  of  those  who 
knew  him  best — in  short,  could  they  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  man  Washington — they  would 
scarcely  conclude  that  he  had  much  regard  for 
Christian  piety.  They  would  be  disposed  to  be- 
lieve that  after  all  the  race  track  had  more  attrac- 
tions for  him  than  the  church;  that  he  preferred  a 
glass  of  good  brandy  to  a  drop  of  communion 
wine;  that  he  was  probably  more  addicted  to 
swearing  than  he  was  to  praying. 

Washington  was  one  of  the  leading  spirits  who 
molded  our  present  from  of  government,  presid- 
ing over  the  convention  that  framed  our  Consti- 
tution. His  influence  was  very  great,  and  the 
greatest  deference  was  paid  to  his  opinions.  Had 
he  desired  it  he  could  probably  have  had  the 
government  established  upon  a  Christian  founda- 
tion; and  had  he  been  a  very  zealous  adherent  of 
that  faith,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  he 
would  have  done  so,  or  at  least  have  favored  some 
recognition  of  its  claims  in  the  Constitution.  But 
he  did  not  utter  a  word  in  its  behalf. 

Above  his  official  signature,  as  President  of 
the  United  States,  appears  this  important  declar- 
ation : 

"The  government  of  the  United  States  is  not 
in  any  sense  founded  on  the  Christian  religion" 
(Treaty  with  Tripoli). 


138  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

He  further  solemnly  declares  that  "the  United 
States  is  not  a  Christian  nation  any  more  than  it 
is  a  Jewish  or  a  Mohammedan  nation/'  referring 
to  it,  of  course,  in  a  political  and  not  in  a  religious 
sense. 

Washington,  like  Paine,  Jefferson,  and  Frank- 
lin, was  a  staunch  opponent  of  ecclesiastical 
tyranny.  Almost  immediately  after  his  first  in- 
auguration, in  answer  to  an  address  presented 
by  the  Baptists  of  Virginia,  he  said: 

"If  I  could  have  entertained  the  slightest  ap- 
prehension that  the  Constitution  framed  in  the 
Convention,  when  I  had  the  honor  to  preside, 
might  possibly  endanger  the  religious  rights  of 
any  ecclesiastical  society,  certainly  I  would  never 
have  placed  my  signature  to  it;  and  if  I  could 
now  conceive  that  the  general  government  might 
be  so  administered  as  to  render  the  liberty  of  con- 
science insecure,  I  beg  you  will  be  persuaded  that 
no  one  would  be  more  zealous  than  myself  to  es- 
tablish effectual  barriers  against  the  horrors  of 
spiritual  tyranny  and  every  species  of  religious 
persecution." 

In  reply  to  an  address  received  from  the 
Quakers,  he  said: 

"Government  being,  among  other  purposes,  in- 
stituted to  protect  the  consciences  of  men  from 
oppression,  it  certainly  is  the  duty  of  rulers,  not 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  139 

only  to  abstain  from  it  themselves,  but  according 

to  their  stations,  to  prevent  it  in  others 

While  men  perform  their  social  duties  faith- 
fully, they  do  all  that  society  or  the  state  can  with 
propriety  demand  or  expect;  and  remain  respon- 
sible to  their  maker  for  the  religion,  or  mode  of 
faith,  which  they  may  prefer  or  profess." 

That  he  was  fully  cognizant  of  the  intolerant 
spirit  of  Christianity  is  evidenced  by  a  letter  writ- 
ten to  Sir  Edward  Newenham,  dated  October  20, 
1792,  in  which  he  says: 

"Of  all  the  animosities  which  have  existed 
among  mankind,  those  which  are  caused  by  a  dif- 
ference of  sentiments  in  religion  appear  to  be  the 
most  inveterate  and  distressing,  and  ought  most 
to  be  deprecated.  I  was  in  hopes  that  the  enlight- 
ened and  liberal  policy,  which  has  marked  the 
present  age,  would  at  least  have  reconciled  Chris- 
tians of  every  denomination  so  far  that  we  should 
never  again  see  their  religious  disputes  carried 
to  such  a  pitch  as  to  endanger  the  peace  of 
society." 

To  Lafayette,  who  was  trying  to  secure  reli- 
gious toleration  for  France,  he  wrote: 

"I  am  not  less  ardent  in  my  wish  that  you  may 
succeed  in  your  plan  of  toleration  in  religious 
matters.  Being  no  bigot  myself,  I  am  disposed 
to  indulge  the  professors  of  Christianity  in  the 


140  THE  FATHERS  OP  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

church  with  that  road  to  heaven  which  to  them 
shall  seem  the  most  direct,  plainest,  easiest,  and 
least  liable  to  exception." 

Soon  after  he  became  President,  the  First 
Presbytery  of  the  Eastward  sent  him  an  address 
containing  the  following:  "We  should  not  have 
been  alone  in  rejoicing  to  have  seen  some  ex- 
plicit acknowledgment  of  the  only  true  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ,  whom  he  hath  sent,  inserted  some- 
where in  the  Magna  Charter  of  our  country."  To 
this  Washington  replied: 

"The  path  of  true  piety  is  so  plain  as  to  require 

but  little  political  direction In  the  progress 

of  morality  and  science,  to  which  our  government 
will  give  every  furtherance,  we  may  confidently 
expect  the  advancement  of  true  religion  and  the 
completion  of  our  happiness." 

Washington's  most  popular  biographers  were 
Weems  and  Sparks,  both  clergymen.  Weems' 
"Life  of  Washington,"  the  delight  of  many  an 
American  boy,  a  work  made  up  of  historical  facts 
highly  colored  and  interwoven  with  traditional 
stories  and  anecdotes,  has  long  since  been  dis- 
carded as  an  authority.  Weems  does  not  give  us 
the  real  Washington,  but  an  ideal  hero  of  his  own 
creation.  This  hero  he  surrounds  with  a  halo  of 
piety.  And  yet  the  religion  of  this  hero  is  not  the 
religion  of  Christ,  but  the  religion  of  God.    The 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  141 

Washington  of  Weoms  is  a  Theist,  not  a  Chris- 
tian. Sparks  aflfirms  that  Washington  was  a 
Christian.  But  from  his  standpoint  the  affirma- 
tion was  one  easily  made.  Sparks  was  a  Unita- 
rian— one  who  rejects  the  dogmas  of  the  inspi- 
ration of  the  Bible  and  the  divinity  of  Christ— one 
who  defines  Christianity  as  ''one  with  the  abso- 
lute religion  of  nature  and  reason" — one  who 
classes  as  Christians  all  good  men,  regardless  of 
their  religious  belief.  It  is  true  that  Sparks  de- 
clares that  Washington  was  a  member  of  the 
Episcopal  church,  but  he  also  admits  that  during 
his  life  he  ceased  to  be  a  communicant  of  this 
church. 

Theodore  Parker,  in  his  "Four  Historic  Ameri- 
cans," describes  the  religion  of  Washington  as 
follows : 

"He  had  much  of  the  principle,  little  of  the  sen- 
timents of  religion.  He  was  more  moral  than 
pious.  In  early  life  a  certain  respect  for  ecclesi- 
astical forms  made  him  vestryman  at  two 
churches.  This  respect  for  outward  forms  with 
ministers  and  reporters  for  newsapers  very  often 
passes  for  the  substance  of  religion.  It  does  not 
appear  that  Washington  took  a  deep  and  sponta- 
neous delight  in  religious  emotions  more  than  in 
poetry,  in  works  of  art,  or  in  the  beauties  of  na- 
ture. .  .  .  Silence  is  a  figure  of  speech,  and  in  the 


142  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

latter  years  of  his  life  I  suppose  his  theological 
opinions  were  those  of  John  Adams,  Dr.  Franklin, 
and  Thomas  Jefferson,  only  he  was  not  a  specu- 
lative man,  and  did  not  care  to  publish  them  to 
the  world." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Minot  J.  Savage,  in  a  sermon  on 
Washington,  says:  "Those  best  qualified  to  testify 
tell  us  that  he  was  decidedly  Liberal  in  his  the- 
ology in  his  mature  manhood;  and  we  know  he 
was  not  shocked  by  the  teachings  of  Thomas 
Paine.  That  he  trusted  in  God,  believed  in  a 
Providence  that  in  some  large  way  guided  human 
destiny,  is,  doubtless,  true;  but  that  he  was  an 
evangelical  Christian  is  almost  certainly  not 
true." 

The  Rev.  John  Snyder,  of  St.  Louis,  in  an  ar- 
ticle on  Thomas  Paine  says:  "If  Thomas  Paine 
is  in  hell  on  account  of  his  religious  opinions, 
George  Washington,  Benjamin  Franklin  and 
Thomas  Jefferson  are  in  his  company.  .  .  .  He 
shared  the  religious  convictions  of  Washington, 
Franklin  and  Jefferson." 

It  has  been  claimed  that  Washington's  failure 
to  demand  Paine's  release,  when  he  was  im- 
prisoned in  France,  was  because  of  Paine's  Infi- 
delity. Nothing  can  be  further  from  the  truth  than 
this.  His  failure  to  interfere  in  Paine's  behalf 
was  owing  to  the  misrepresentations  of  his  minis- 


GBOBGE  WASHINGTON.  143 

ter,  Gouverneur  Morris,  who  declared  that  Paine 
had  become  a  French  citizen,  and  his  determi- 
nation to  observe  a  strict  neutrality  in  regard  to 
European  affairs.  His  love  for  Lafayette  was 
scarcely  less  than  that  of  a  father  for  his  son;  yet 
when  Lafayette  was  imprisoned  in  Austria  he 
wrote:  "As  President  there  must  be  no  commit- 
ment of  the  Government  to  any  interference  of 
mine." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Swing  of  Chicago,  in  a  sermon  on 
Washington  and  Lincoln,  said:  "It  is  often  la- 
mented by  the  churchman  that  Washington  and 
Lincoln  possessed  little  religion  except  that  found 
in  the  word  'God.'  All  that  can  here  be  affirmed 
is  that  what  the  religion  of  these  two  men  lacked 
in  theological  details  it  made  up  in  greatness. 
Their  minds  were  born  with  a  love  of  great  prin- 
ciples. Washington  loved  and  exalted  each  great 
principle.  He  was  compelled  by  his  nature  to  se- 
lect from  Christianity  its  central  ideas.  This  tend- 
ency was  intensified  by  the  local  friendship  for 
France.  France  was  battling  against  a  vast  bundle 
of  false  Christian  particulars.  The  Colonies  so  hat- 
ed England  and  so  admired  France  that  most  of 
our  early  statesmen  reduced  Christianity  to  that 
French  Rationalism  which  was  quite  well  satis- 
fied with  the  doctrine  of  a  creator.  A  supersti- 
tious Christianity  was  falling  to  pieces,  and  the 


144  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

new  orthodoxy  had  not  yet  come.  Many  of  those 
statesmen  when  they  took  any  steps  at  all  in  the 
path  of  religion  walked  with  God  alone." 

Judge  J.  B.  Stallo,  minister  to  Italy  during 
President  Cleveland's  first  administration,  in  an 
argument  before  the  Superior  Court  of  Cincinnati, 
made  use  of  the  following  words:  "The  men  who 
assembled  in  Philadelphia  to  frame  our  Consti- 
tution were,  many  of  them,  imbued  with  the  spirit 
of  Freethought  then  prevalent.  I  am  not  without 
apprehension  that  this  will  be  found  to  be  true  to 
a  certain  extent  of  George  Washington — clarum 
et  venerabile  nomen — who  presided  in  that  con- 
vention; that  when  you  turn  to  the  reliable  ac- 
counts of  liis  life  and  not  to  the  rhetoricians,  who 
have  seen  fit  to  meddle  with  it,  the  suspicion  will 
arise  that  he  would  hardly  have  subscribed  to  any 
of  the  dogmatic  creeds  of  the  day." 

The  centennial  of  Washington's  inauguration 
called  out  an  increased  degree  of  interest  in  his 
history.  Everything  pertaining  to  the  man,  in- 
cluding his  religious  belief,  was  fully  and  freely 
discussed.  It  was  gratifying  to  note  that  the  factt 
connected  with  this  subject,  w'hich  of  late  yearg 
have  been  exhumed  and  made  public  by  our 
industrious  truth  seekers,  had  had  their  effect  in 
largely  disabusing  the  popular  mind  of  the 
fraudulent  claims  so  persistently  maintained  by 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  145 

the  church.  Twenty-five  years  ago.  Washington's 
orthodoxy  was  rarely  questioned.  Now,  in  spite 
of  religious  prejudice  and  bigotry,  the  secular 
press,  the  barometer  of  public  sentiment,  gener- 
ally afifirms  its  improbability. 

Even  the  religious  press  is  beginning  to  admit 
the  truth.  The  Western  Christian  Advocate,  one 
of  the  most  influential  organs  of  the  leading  Pro- 
testant denomination  of  the  United  States,  edi- 
torially says: 

"The  simple  truth  is,  that  while  many  denom- 
inations claim  Washington,  he  belonged  to  no 
church,  and  was  not  perhaps  a  Christian  in  that 
experimental  sense  necessary,  by  the  New  Testa- 
ment standards,  to  constitute  a  child  of  God." 

The  Catholic  World  makes  this  significant  ad- 
mission: "In  all  the  voluminous  writings  of  Gen- 
eral Washington,  the  holy  name  of  Jesus  Christ  is 
never  once  written." 

A  Southern  paper,  the  Memphis  Commercial 
Appeal,  recently  gave  a  pen  picture  of  Washing- 
ton which,  although  rather  harshly  drawn,  is  a 
more  truthful  picture  than  the  one  usually  drawn 
by  Sunday-school  artists : 

"Several  writers  of  late  have  marred  the  per- 
fect wooden  image  which  history  has  left  us  of 
George  Washington.  They  have  shown  that  he 
was  a  master  hand  at  swearing;  that  he  could 


146  THE  FATHERS  OP  OUR  REPUBLIO. 

carry  about  as  much  liquor  as  any  other  of  his  es- 
teemed contemporaries,  and  that  he  was,  in  short, 
something  of  a  dead  game  sport.  Human  nature 
is  such  that  it  has  rather  rejoiced  over  these 
revelations.  It  gags  at  perfection  just  as  strenu- 
ously as  it  condemns  total  depravity. 

"Zealous  efforts  have  been  made  by  priestly 
falsifiers  to  make  the  'Father  of  his  Country* 
something  he  was  not.  They  represented  him, 
while  at  the  head  of  the  army,  frequently  going 
aside  to  pray.  This  is  wholly  false,  as  is  the 
hatchet  and  cherry-tree  story  told  by  Elder 
Weems. 

"Truthful  history  presents  Washington  as  iras- 
cible, impetuous,  and  very  profane  on  great  occa- 
sions. He  was  human,  with  the  infirmities  of 
human  nature.  He  was  not  an  orthodox  believer, 
but,  like  nearly  all  the  fathers  of  the  Republic,  he 
was  a  Deist." 

The  following  extracts  from  the  evidence  ad- 
duced epitomizes  this  evidence  and  clearly  show 
that  the  truth  of  my  second  proposition,  "Wash- 
ington was  not  a  believer  in  the  Christian  reli- 
gion," has  been  established: 

"I  do  not  believe  that  any  degree  of  recollection 
will  bring  to  any  mind  any  fact  which  would 
prove  General  Washington  to  have  been  a  be- 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  147 

liever  in  the  Christian  revelation." — Bishop 
White. 

"Sir,  Washington  was  a  Deist." — Rev.  Dr. 
Abercrombie. 

"Like  nearly  all  the  founders  of  the  Republic, 
he  was  not  a  Christian,  but  a  Deist." — Rev.  Dr. 
Ashbel  Green,  quoted  by  Mr.  Bradford. 

"He  had  no  belief  at  all  in  the  divine  origin  of 
the  Bible."— Ibid. 

"I  think  anyone  who  will  candidly  do  as  I  have 
done,  will  come  to  the  conclusion  that  he  was  a 
Deist  and  nothing  more." — Rev.  Dr.  Wilson. 

"Gouverneur  Morris  .  .  .  has  often  told  me 
that  General  Washington  believed  no  more  in 
that  system  [Christianity]  than  he  did." — Thomas 
Jefferson. 

"He  left  behind  him  rot  one  word  to  warrant 
the  belief  that  he  was  other  than  a  sincere  Deist." 
— Robert  Dale  Owen. 

"It  has  been  confidently  stated  to  me  that  he 
actually  refused  spiritual  aid  when  it  was  pro- 
posed to  send  for  a  clergyman." — Ibid. 

"My  researches  do  not  enable  me  to  affirm  that 
Washington,  on  his  death-bed,  gave  evidence  of 
Christian  belief." — Rev.  Dr.  Miller. 

"In  mature  life  Washington  was  a  Deist." — 
Dr.  Moncure  D.  Conway. 

"Many  clergyman  visited  him,  but  they  were 


148  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

never  invited  to  hold  family  prayers,  and  no  grace 
was  ever  said  at  table," — Ibid. 

"In  the  thousands  of  his  letters  I  have  never 
been  able  to  find  the  name  of  Christ  or  any  refer- 
ence to  him." — Ibid. 

"In  several  thousand  letters  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  never  appears,  and  it  is  notably  absent 
from  his  last  will." — Gen.  A.  W.  Greely. 

"In  all  the  voluminous  writings  of  General 
Washington,  the  holy  name  of  Jesus  Christ  is 
never  once  written." — Catholic  World. 

"He  belonged  to  no  church,  and  was  not  per- 
haps a  Christian  in  that  experimental  sense  neces- 
sary, by  the  New  Testament  standards,  to  consti- 
tute a  child  of  God." — ^^'estern  Christian  Advo- 
cate. 

"That  he  was  an  evangelical  Christian  is  almost 
certainly  not  true." — Rev.  M.  J.  Savage.  , 

"I  suppose  his  theological  opinions  were  those 
of  John  Adams,  Dr.  Franklin  and  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son."— Theodore  Parker. 

"He  [Paine]  shared  the  religious  convictions  of 
Washington." — Rev.  John  Snyder. 

"Most  of  our  early  statesmen  [including  Wash- 
ington] reduced  Christianity  to  that  French  Ra- 
tionalism which  was  quite  well  satisfied  with  the 
doctrine  of  a  Creator." — Rev.  Dr.  Swing. 

"The   men   who   assembled  in  Philadelphia  to 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  149 

frame  our  Constitution  were,  many  of  them  [in- 
cluding Washington]  imbued  with  the  spirit  of 
Freethought  then  prevalent." — Judge  J.  B.  Stallo. 

Washington  was  not  a  church  member;  he  was 
not  a  Christian.  Like  Paine  and  Jefferson,  he  was 
a  disbeliever  in  Christianity — a  Freethinker. 


BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

The  world  has  produced  few  wiser  or  better  men 
than  our  American  Socrates,  Benjamin  Franklin. 
While  he  lived  he  was  loved  and  honored  by  all; 
when  he  died,  two  continents  mourned  as  a  child 
mourns  the  loss  of  a  beloved  father.  Eagerly  has 
the  church  striven  to  place  to  her  credit  the  pres- 
tige of  this  wise  and  good  man's  name.  But  in 
vain;  she  cannot  efface  the  oft-repeated  declara- 
tions of  his  disbelief. 

Franklin  received  a  religious  training,  but  his 
good  sense  and  his  humane  nature  forced  him  to 
rebel  against  the  irrational  and  inhuman  tenets 
of  his  parents'  faith,  and  at  an  early  age  a  spirit 
of  skepticism  was  developed  in  him,  as  the  fol- 
lowing extracts  from  his  Autobiography  will 
show  : 

"My  parents  had  given  me  betimes  religious  im- 
pressions, and  I  received  from  my  infancy  a  pious 
education  in  the  principles  of  Calvinism.  But 
scarely  was  I  arrived  at  fifteen  years  of  age, 
when,  after  having  doubted  in  turn  of  different 
tenets,  according  as  I  found  them  combated  in  the 

158 


154  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

different  books  that  I  read,  I  began  to  donbt  of 
Revelation  itself"  (Autobiography,  p.  66). 

He  read  much,  and  the  ambition  of  his  youth, 
as  he  declares,  was  to  become  a  decent  writer  of 
the  English  language.  His  favorite  exercise  was 
to  reproduce,  in  his  own  words,  the  ideas  of  the 
authors  he  read.     Alluding  to  this,  he  says: 

"The  time  which  I  devoted  to  these  exercises, 
and  to  reading,  was  the  evening  after  my  day's 
labor  was  finished,  the  morning  before  it  began, 
and  Sundays  when  I  could  escape  divine  service. 
While  I  lived  with  my  father,  he  had  insisted  on 
my  punctual  attendance  on  public  worship,  and 
I  still  indeed  considered  it  as  a  duty,  but  a  duty 
which  I  thought  I  had  no  time  to  practice"  (Ibid, 
p.  16). 

In  the  course  of  his  mental  pursuits  he  read 
Locke  on  the  "Human  Understanding,"  and  care- 
fully studied  some  essays  which  taught  the 
Socratic  method  of  disputation,  which  he  immed- 
iately put  to  use  in  combating  superstition: 

"Charmed  to  a  degree  of  enthusiasm  with  this 
mode  of  disputing,  I  adopted  it,  and  renouncing 
blunt  contradictions,  and  direct  and  positive  argu- 
ment, I  assumed  the  character  of  a  humble  ques- 
tioner. The  perusal  of  Shaftesbury  and  Collins 
had  made  me  a  skeptic;  and,  being  previously  so 
as  to  many  doctrines   of  Christianity,   I   found 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  155 

Socrates'  method  to  be  both  the  safest  for  myself, 
as  well  as  the  most  embarrassing  to  those  against 
whom  I  applied  it.  It  soon  afforded  me  singular 
pleasure;  I  incessantly  practiced  it;  and  became 
yery  adroit  in  obtaining,  even  from  persons  of 
superior  understanding,  concessions  of  which  they 
did  not  foresee  the  consequence"  (Ibid,  p.  17). 

The  result  of  his  many  disputes  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  religion  is  easily  divined.     He  says: 

"I  began  to  be  regarded,  by  pious  souls,  with 
horror,  either  as  an  apostate  or  an  Atheist"  (Ibid, 
p.  22). 

Being  associated  with  an  elder  brother  in  the 
publication  of  the  New  England  Courant,  young 
Franklin  made  use  of  its  columns  to  propagate 
his  radical  thoughts.  From  an  old  edition  of 
Goodrich's  Reader  (Fifth,  pp.  273,  274)  I  quote 
the  following  relative  to  his  adventures  in  this 
field  of  religious  criticism: 

"In  Boston,  in  1721,  when  the  pulpit  had  mar- 
shaled Quakers  and  witches  to  the  gallows,  one 
newspaper,  the  New  England  Courant,  the  fourth 
American  periodical,  was  established  as  an  organ 
of  independent  opinion,  by  James  Franklin.  Its 
temporary  success  was  advanced  by  Benjamin, 
his  brother  and  apprentice,  a  boy  of  fifteen,  who 
wrote  pieces  for  its  humble  columns. 

"The  little  sheet  satirized  hypocrisy  and  spoke 


156  THE  FATHERS  OP  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

of  religious  knaves  as  of  all  knaves  the  worst. 
This  was  described  as  tending  'to  abuse  the  minis- 
ters of  religion  in  a  manner  which  was  intoler- 
able.' 'I  can  well  remember,'  writes  Increase 
Mather,  then  more  than  four  score  years  of  age, 
'when  the  civil  government  would  have  taken  an 
effectual  course  to  suppress  such  a  cursed  libel.' 

"The  ministers  persevered,  and,  in  January, 
1723,  a  committee  of  inquiry  was  raised  by  the 
legislature.  Benjamin  Franklin,  being  examined, 
escaped  with  an  admonition;  James,  the  publish- 
er, refusing  to  discover  the  author  of  the  offense, 
was  kept  in  jail  for  a  month;  his  paper  was  cen- 
sured as  reflecting  injuriously  on  the  reverend 
ministers  of  the  gospel;  and,  by  a  vote  of  the 
House  and  Council,  he  was  forbidden  to  print  it, 
'except  it  be  first  supervised.'  " 

This  young  opponent  of  priestcraft  soon  after 
left  Boston,  went  to  New  York,  and  from  thence 
to  Philadelphia.  In  passing  through  New  Jersey 
he  stopped  at  an  inn  near  Burlington,  kept  by  a 
Dr.  Brown.  Of  this  Dr.  Brown,  he  writes  as  fol- 
lows: 

"This  man  entered  into  a  conversation  with  me 
while  I  took  some  refreshment,  and  perceiving 
that  I  had  read  a  little,  he  expressed  toward  me 
considerable  interest  and  friendship.  Our  ac- 
quaintance continued  during  the  remainder  of  his 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  157 

life.  I  believe  him  to  have  been  what  is  called 
an  itinerant  doctor;  for  there  was  no  town  in  Eng- 
land, or  indeed  in  Europe,  of  which  he  could  not 
give  a  particular  account.  He  was  neither  defi- 
cient in  understanding  nor  literature,  but  he  was 
a  sad  Infidel;  and,  some  years  after,  wickedly 
undertook  to  travesty  the  Bible,  in  burlesque 
verse,  as  Cotton  has  travestied  Virgil.  He  ex- 
hibited, by  this  means,  many  facts  in  a  very  ludi- 
crous point  of  view,  which  would  have  given  um- 
brage to  weak  minds,  had  this  work  been  published, 
which  it  never  was"  (Autobiography,  p.  25). 

I  can  see  the  sly  twinkle  in  Benjamin's  eye  as 
he  writes  about  this  "sad  Infidel"  who  "wickedly 
undertook  to  travesty  the  Bible."  It  was  with 
these  same  "sad  Infidels"  that  he  delighted  to 
associate  throughout  his  life,  while  many  a  time 
he,  too,  "wickedly  undertook  to  travesty  the 
Bible"  by  pretending  to  read  from  it,  but  extem- 
porizing in  a  ludicrous  manner  as  he  went  along 
(Parton's  Life  of  Franklin,  Vol.  i.,  p.  320). 

In  Philadelphia  he  was  associated  with  a  print- 
er named  Keimer.     Referring  to  Keimer,  he  says: 

"He  formed  so  high  an  opinion  of  my  talents 
for  refutation  that  he  seriously  proposed  to  me  to 
become  his  colleague  in  the  establishment  of  a 
new  religious  sect.  He  was  to  propagate  the  doc- 
trine by  preaching,  and  I  to  refute  every  opponent. 


158  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

"When  he  explained  to  me  his  tenets,  I  found 
many  absurdities  which  I  refused  to  admit.  .  .  . 
Keimer  wore  his  beard  long,  because  Moses  had 
somewhere  said,  'Thou  shalt  not  mar  the  corners 
of  thy  beard.'  He  likewise  observed  the  Sab- 
bath; and  these  were  with  him  two  very  essential 
points.     I  disliked  them   both"  (Autobiog.p.  40). 

At  a  later  period,  alluding  to  his  religious  be- 
lief, Franklin  says: 

"Some  volumes  against  Deism  fell  into  my 
hands.  They  were  said  to  be  the  substance  of 
sermons  preached  at  Boyle's  Lecture.  It  happened 
that  they  produced  on  me  an  effect  precisely 
the  reverse  of  what  was  intended  by  the  writers; 
for  the  arguments  of  the  Deists,  which  were  cited 
in  order  to  be  refuted,  appealed  to  me  much  more 
forcibly  than  the  refutation  itself.  In  a  word,  I 
soon  became  a  thorough  Deist"  (Ibid,  p.  66). 

In  one  of  his  youthful  essays  he  professes  a  sort 
of  polytheistic  belief  as  shown  by  the  followinjij 
extracts: 

"The  Infinite  Father  expects  or  requires  no  wor- 
ship or  praise  from  us." 

"I  conceive,  then,  that  the  Infinite  has  created 
many  beings  or  gods  vastly  superior  to  man." 

"It  may  be  these  created  gods  are  immortals; 
or  it  may  be  that  after  many  ages,  they  are 
changed,  and  others  supply  their  places. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  159 

"Howbeit,  I  conceive  that  each  of  these  is  ex- 
ceeding good  and  very  powerful;  and  that  each 
has  made  for  himself  one  glorious  sun,  attended 
with  a  beautiful  and  admirable  system  of  planets. 

"It  is  that  particular  wise  and  good  God,  who 
is  the  author  and  owner  of  our  system,  that  I  pro- 
pose for  the  object  of  my  praise  and  adoration" 
(Franklin's  Works,  Vol.  ii,,  p.  2). 

He  subsequently  rejected  some  of  his  earlier 
philosophical  and  ethical  views,  particularly 
those  contained  in  a  small  pamphlet  which  he 
wrote,  entitled  a  "Dissertation  on  Liberty  and 
Necessity,  Pleasure  and  Pain."  Referring  to  his 
arguments  in  this  pamphlet  he  says: 

"The  object  was  to  prove,  from  the  attributes  of 
God,  his  goodness,  wisdom,  and  power,  that  there 
could  be  no  such  thing  as  evil  in  the  world;  that 
vice  and  virtue  did  not  in  reality  exist,  and  were 
nothing  more  than  vain  distinctions.  I  no  longer 
regarded  it  as  so  blameless  a  work  as  I  had  form- 
erly imagined;  and  I  suspected  that  some  error 
must  have  imperceptibly  glided  into  my  argu- 
ment, by  which  all  the  inferences  I  had  drawn 
from  it  had  been  affected,  as  frequently  happens 
in  metaphysical  reasonings.  In  a  word,  I  was  at 
last  convinced  that  truth,  probity,  and  sincerity 
in  transactions  between  man  and  man  were  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  the  happiness  of  life;  and 


160  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUE  REPUBLIC. 

I  resolved  from  that  moment,  and  wrote  the  res- 
olution in  my  journal,  to  practice  them  as  long  as 
I  lived"  (Autobiography,  pp.  66,  67). 

His  unbelief  in  Christianity,  however,  remained 
unchanged.    He  continues: 

^'Eevelation,  indeed,  as  such  had  no  influence  on 
my  mind"  (Ibid,  p.  67). 

I  have  given  the  theological  views  of  Frank- 
lin's youth  and  early  manhood;  I  shall  next  pre- 
sent the  religious  opinions  of  his  mature  manhood 
and  old  age.  Less  reticent  than  Washington,  he 
was  at  the  same  time  less  radical  than  Jefferson, 
and  less  disposed  to  combat  the  dogmas  of  the 
church.  Nevertheless,  his  expressed  opinions  are 
ample  to  show  that  at  no  time  during  his  career 
was  he  a  Christian — that  he  lived  and  died  a 
Deist. 

In  a  letter  to  the  Rev.  George  Whitefield,  writ- 
ten in  1753,  when  he  was  forty-seven  years  old, 
we  have  his  opinion  of  Christianity: 

"The  faith  you  mention  has  doubtless  its  use  in 
the  world.  I  do  not  desire  to  see  it  diminished, 
nor  would  I  desire  to  lessen  it  in  any  way;  but  I 
wish  it  were  more  productive  of  good  worlds  than 
I  have  generally  seen  it.  I  mean  real  good  works, 
works  of  kindness,  charity,  mercy,  and  public 
spirit,  not  holy-day  keeping,  sermon-hearing,  and 
reading,  performing  church  ceremonies,  or  making 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  161 

long  prayers,  filled  with  flatteries  and  compli- 
ments, despised  even  by  wise  men,  and  much  les8 
capable  of  pleasing  the  Deity"  (Works,  Vol.  vii., 
p.  75). 

Writing  to  his  sister,  Mrs.  Jane  Mecom,  five 
years  later,  he  says: 

"It  is  pity  that  good  works,  among  some  sorts 
of  people,  are  so  little  valued,  and  good  words  ad- 
mired in  their  stead.  I  mean  seemingly  pious  dis- 
courses, instead  of  humane,  benevolent  actions. 
These  they  almost  put  out  of  countenance  by  call- 
ing morality,  rotten  morality;  righteousness, 
ragged  righteousness,  and  even  filthy  rags,  and 
when  you  mention  virtue,  pucker  up  their  noses; 
at  the  same  time  that  they  eagerly  snuff  up  an 
empty,  canting  harangue,  as  if  it  were  a  posy  of 
the  choicest  flowers"  (Works,  Vol.  vii.,  p.  185). 

"Improvement  in  religion  is  called  building  up 
and  edification.  Faith  is  then  the  ground  floor, 
hope  is  up  one  pair  of  stairs.  My  dear  beloved 
Jenny,  don't  delight  so  much  to  dwell  in  those 
lower  rooms,  but  get  as  fast  as  you  can  into  the 
garret;  for  in  truth  the  best  room  in  the  house  is 
charity.  For  my  part  I  wish  the  house  was  turned 
upside  down"  (Ibid,  p.  184). 

Franklin  possibly  believed  in  a  future  state  of 
existence,  but  his  conception  of  immortality  was 
that  of  the  Deist,  and  not  of  the  Christian.    In  his 


162  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

letter  to  Whitefield,  previously  alluded  to,  he 
says: 

"By  heaven,  we  understand  a  state  of  happi- 
ness, infinite  in  degree  and  eternal  in  duration.  I 
can  do  nothing  to  deserve  such  a  reward.  He  that, 
for  giving  a  draught  of  water  to  a  thirsty  person, 
should  expect  to  be  paid  with  a  good  plantation, 
would  be  modest  in  his  demands  compared  with 
those  who  think  they  deserve  heaven  for  the  little 
good  they  do  on  earth.  .  .  .  for  my  part,  I  have 
not  the  vanity  to  think  I  deserve  it,  the  folly  to  ex- 
pect, or  the  ambition  to  desire  it"  (Works,  Vol. 
vii.,  p.  75). 

In  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Partridge,  he  ob- 
serves : 

"With  regard  to  future  bliss,  I  cannot  help  im- 
agining that  multitudes  of  the  zealously  orthodox 
of  different  sects,  who  at  the  last  day  may  flock 
together  in  hopes  of  seeing  each  other  damned, 
will  be  disappointed,  and  obliged  to  rest  content 
with  their  own  salvation"  (Works,  Vol.  x.,  p.  366). 

Writing  to  his  sister,  Mrs.  Mecom,  he  says: 

"When  religious  people  quarrel  about  religion, 
or  hungry  people  about  their  victuals,  it  looks  as 
if  they  had  not  much  of  either  about  them" 
(Works,  Vol.  vii.,  p.  438). 

In  a  letter  to  "A  Friend  in  England"  (supposed 
to  be  Dr.  Priestley),  Franklin  makes  some  observa- 
tions regarding  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible: 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  163 

"I  agreed  with  you  in  sentiments  concerning 
the  Old  Testament,  and  thought  the  clause  in  our 
[Pennsylvania]  Constitution,  which  required  the 
members  of  the  Assembly  to  declare  their  belief 
that  the  whole  of  it  was  given  by  divine  inspira- 
tion, had  better  have  been  omitted.  That  I  had 
opposed  the  clause;  but,  being  overpowered  by 
numbers,  and  fearing  more  in  future  might  be 
grafted  on  it,  I  prevailed  to  have  the  additional 
clause,  'that  no  further  or  more  extended  profes- 
sion of  faith  should  ever  be  exacted.'  I  observed 
to  you,  too,  that  the  evil  of  it  was  the  less,  as  no 
inhabitant,  nor  any  officer  of  government,  except 
the  members  of  Assembly,  was  obliged  to  make 
the  declaration. 

"So  much  for  that  letter;  to  which  I  may  now 
add,  that  there  are  several  things  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament impossible  to  be  given  by  divine  inspi- 
ration; such  as  the  approbation  ascribed  to  the 
angel  of  the  Lord  of  that  abominably  wicked  and 
detestable  action  of  Jael,  the  wife  of  Heber  the 
Kenite.  If  the  rest  of  the  book  were  like  that, 
I  should  rather  suppose  it  given  by  inspiration 
from  another  quarter,  and  renounce  the  whole" 
(Works,  Vol.  X.,  p.  134). 

He  extolled  the  character  of  Jesus,  but  in  re- 
gard to  his  divinity  he  declared  himself  a  skeptic. 

His  opinion  of  the  Fall  of  Man,  the  Atonement, 


164  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

and  other  Christian  doctrines,  may  be  inferred 
from  an  anecdote  related  by  him  in  an  essay 
which  he  wrote  on  the  "Savages  of  North 
America." 

"A  Swedish  minister  having  assembled  the 
chiefs  of  the  Susquehanna  Indians,  made  a  sermon 
to  them,  acquainting  them  with  the  principal  his- 
torical facts  on  which  our  religion  is  founded, 
such  as  the  fall  of  our  first  parents  by  eating  an 
apple;  the  coming  of  Christ  to  repair  the  mis- 
chief; his  miracles  and  sufferings,  etc.  When  he 
had  finished,  an  Indian  orator  stood  up  to  thank 
him.  'What  you  have  told  us,'  said  he,  'is  all  very 
good.  It  is  indeed  bad  to  eat  apples.  It  is  better 
to  make  them  all  into  cider.  We  are  much  obliged 
by  your  kindness  in  coming  so  far  to  tell  us  those 
things  which  you  have  heard  from  your  mothers. 
In  return,  I  will  tell  you  some  of  those  which  we 
have  heard  from  ours.  In  the  beginning,  our 
fathers  had  only  the  flesh  of  animals  to  subsist 
on;  and  if  their  hunting  was  unsuccessful,  they 
were  starving.  Two  of  our  young  hunters  having 
killed  deer,  made  a  fire  in  the  woods  to  broil  some 
parts  of  it.  When  they  were  about  to  satisfy  their 
hunger,  they  beheld  a  beautiful  young  woman  de- 
scend from  the  clouds,  and  seat  herself  on  that  hill 
which  you  see  yonder  among  the  blue  mountains. 
They  said  to  each  other,  it  is  a  spirit  that  perhaps 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  165 

has  smelt  our  broiled  venison  and  wishes  to  eat 
of  it;  let  us  offer  some  to  her.  They  presented  her 
with  the  tongue;  she  was  pleased  with  the  taste 
of  it,  and  said,  ^Your  kindness  shall  be  rewarded. 
Come  to  this  place  after  thirteen  moons,  and  you 
shall  find  something  that  will  be  of  a  great  bene- 
fit in  nourishing  you  and  your  children  to  the 
latest  generations.'  They  did  so  and,  to  their 
surprise,  found  plants  they  had  never  seen  before; 
but  which,  from  that  ancient  time,  have  been  con- 
stantly cultivated  among  us  to  our  great  advan- 
tage. Where  her  right  hand  touched  the  ground 
they  found  maize;  where  her  left  hand  touched 
it  they  found  kidney-beans.'  .  .  .  The  good  mis- 
sionary, disgusted  with  this  idle  tale,  said,  'What 
I  delivered  to  you  were  sacred  truths;  but  what 
you  tell  me  is  mere  fable,  fiction,  and  falsehood.' 
The  Indian,  offended,  replied,  *My  brother,  it 
seems  your  friends  have  not  done  you  justice  in 
your  education;  they  have  not  well  instructed  you 
in  the  rules  of  common  civility.  You  saw  that  we, 
who  understand  and  practice  these  rules,  believed 
all  your  stories,  why  do  you  refuse  to  believe 
ours?'  " 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  to  Jared  In- 
gersoll,  written  in  1762,  shows  how  he  regarded 
the  Christian  Sabbath:  ''When  I  traveled  in 
Flanders  I  thought  of  your  excessively  strict  ob« 


166  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

servation  of  Sunday,  and  that  a  man  could  hardly 
travel  on  that  day  among  you  upon  his  lawful 
occasions  without  hazard  of  punishment,  while 
where  I  was  everyone  traveled,  if  he  pleased,  or 
diverted  himself  in  any  other  way;  and  in  the 
afternoon  both  high  and  low  went  to  the  play  or 
the  opera,  where  there  was  plenty  of  singing, 
fiddling,  and  dancing.  I  looked  around  for  God's 
judgments,  but  saw  no  sign  of  them.  The  cities 
were  well  built  and  full  of  inhabitants,  the  mar- 
kets filled  with  plenty,  the  people  well  favored 
and  well  clothed,  the  fields  well  tilled,  the  cattle 
fat  and  strong,  the  fences,  houses,  and  windows 
all  in  repair,  and  no  'old  tenor'  anywhere  in  the 
country;  which  would  make  one  almost  suspect 
that  the  deity  was  not  so  angry  at  that  offense  as 
a  New  England  justice." 

In  a  letter  to  Dr.  Price  he  had  this  to  say  of  re- 
ligious tests: 

"I  think  they  were  invented  not  so  much  to  se- 
cure religion  as  the  emoluments  of  it.  When  a 
religion  is  good,  I  conceive  that  it  will  support 
itself;  and  when  it  does  not  support  itself,  and 
God  does  not  take  care  to  support  it,  so  that  its 
professors  are  obliged  to  call  for  help  of  the  civil 
power,  'tis  a  sign,  I  apprehend,  of  its  being  a  bad 
one"    (Works,  Vol.  viii.,  p.  506). 

The  above  was  written  in  1780,     It  is  as  true 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  167 

to-day  as  it  was  a  century  ago,  and  I  respectfully 
commend  it  to  the  prayerful  consideration  of 
those  pious  fanatics  who,  under  the  mask  of  tem- 
perance and  other  reforms,  are  endeavoring  to 
have  religious  tests  incorporated  into  our  nation- 
al Constitution. 

Clerical  conceit  and  arrogance  receive  the  fol- 
lowing merited  rebuke  from  his  pen: 

"Nowadays  we  have  scarcely  a  little  parson 
that  does  not  think  it  the  duty  of  every  man  with- 
in his  reach  to  sit  under  his  petty  ministration, 
and  that  whoever  omits  this  offends  God.  To 
such  I  wish  more  humility"  (Works,  Vol.  vii.,  pp. 
76,  77). 

In  an  essay  on  "Toleration"  the  intolerant  char- 
acter of  Christianity  is  thus  presented: 

"If  we  look  back  into  history  for  the  character 
of  the  present  sects  in  Christianity,  we  shall  find 
few  that  have  not  in  their  turns  been  persecutors, 
and  complainers  of  persecution.  The  primitive 
Christians  thought  persecution  extremely  wrong 
in  the  Pagans,  but  practiced  it  on  one  another. 
The  first  Protestants  of  the  Church  of  England 
blamed  persecution  in  the  Komish  church,  but 
practiced  it  upon  the  Puritans.  These  found 
it  wrong  in  the  Bishops,  but  fell  into  the  same 
practice  themselves  both  here  [England]  and  in 
Kew  England"  (Works,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  112). 


168  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

In  a  speech  which  Sparks  ascribes  to  Franklin, 
we  find  the  following  hit  at  religious  dogmatism; 

"Most  sects  in  religion  think  themselves  in  pos- 
session of  all  truth,  and  that  whenever  others 
differ  from  them,  it  is  so  far  error.  Steele,  a  Protes- 
tant, in  a  dedication,  tells  the  Pope,  that  'the  only 
difference  in  our  two  churches,  in  their  opinions 
of  the  certainty  of  their  doctrines,  is,  the  Romish 
Church  is  infallible,  and  the  Church  of  England 
never  in  the  wrong.'  " 

On  one  occasion,  when  Whitefield  visited  this 
country,  he  wrote  to  Franklin,  stating  that  the 
friend  with  whom  he  expected  to  lodge  in  Phila- 
delphia had  left  the  city.  Franklin  very  naturally 
tendered  him  the  hospitalities  of  his  home.  Refer- 
ring to  Whitefield's  acceptance,  he  writes: 

"He  replied  that,  if  I  made  that  offer  for 
Christ's  sake  I  should  not  miss  of  a  reward.  And 
I  returned,  'Don't  let  me  be  mistaken;  it  was  not 
for  Christ's  sake,  but  for  your  sake."  One  of  our 
common  acquaintances  jocosely  remarked  that, 
knowing  it  to  be  the  custom  of  the  saints,  when 
they  received  any  favor,  to  shift  the  burden  of 
obligation  from  off  their  own  shoulders  and  place 
it  in  heaven,  I  had  contrived  to  fix  it  on  earth." 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  written 
to  Richard  Price  of  England: 

"My  nephew,  Mr.  Williams,  will  have  the  honor 


BENJAMIN  FEANKLIN.  169 

of  delivering  you  this  line.  It  is  to  request  from 
you  a  list  of  a  few  good  books,  to  the  value  of 
about  twenty-five  pounds,  such  as  are  most  proper 
to  inculate  principles  of  sound  religion  and  just 
government.  A  new  town  in  the  state  of  Massa- 
chusetts having  done  me  the  honor  of  naming 
itself  after  me,  and  proposing  to  build  a  steeple 
to  their  meeting  house  if  I  would  give  them  a 
bell,  I  have  advised  the  sparing  themselves  the 
expense  of  a  steeple,  for  the  present,  and  that  they 
would  accept  of  books  instead  of  a  bell,  sense  be- 
ing preferred  to  sound"  (Works,  Vol.  x.,  p.  158). 

The  fact  that  Franklin  selected  a  man  who  de- 
nied the  infallibility  of  the  Bible  and  the  divinity 
of  Christ,  to  make  a  collection  of  books  "to  incul- 
cate principles  of  sound  religion,"  to  say  nothing 
of  his  expressed  preference  of  sense  to  sound,  is 
of  itself  suflQcient  to  prove  his  disbelief  in  popular 
Christianity. 

At  the  age  of  eighty,  in  a  letter  to  Benjamin 
Vaughan,  of  England,  he  paid  the  following  trib- 
ute to  the  character  of  heretics: 

"Remember  me  affectionately  to  good  Dr.  Price, 
and  to  the  honest  heretic.  Dr.  Priestley.  I  do  not 
call  him  honest  by  way  of  distinction,  for  I  think 
all  the  heretics  I  have  known  have  been  virtuous 
men.  They  have  the  virtue  of  fortitude,  or  they 
could  not  venture  to  own  their  heresy;  and  they 


170  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUE  REPUBLIC. 

cannot  afford  to  be  deficient  in  any  of  the  other 
virtues,  as  that  would  give  advantage  to  their 
many  enemies;  and  they  have  not,  like  orthodox 
sinners,  such  a  number  of  friends  to  excuse  op 
justify  them.  Do  not,  however,  mistake  me.  It 
is  not  to  my  good  friend's  heresy  that  I  impute 
his  honesty.  On  the  contrary,  'tis  his  honesty 
that  brought  upon  him  the  character  of  a  heretic" 
(Works,  Vol.  X.,  p.  363). 

When  interrogated  as  to  why  he  did  not  promul- 
gate his  rational  views  on  religion  he  replied: 

"The  things  of  this  world  take  up  too  much  of 
my  time,  of  which  indeed  I  have  too  little  left,  to 
undertake  anything  like  a  reformation  in  religion" 
(Ibid,  p.  323). 

Franklin  was  not  ;;n  Atheist;  he  did  not  deny 
the  existence  of  a  GoJ;  he  believed  in  a  God;  but 
hia  God  was  the  humane  conception  of  Deism 
and  not  the  God  of  Christianity.  His  biographer, 
Parton,  says: 

*'He  escaped  the  theology  of  terror,  and  became 
forever  incapable  of  worshiping  a  jealous,  re- 
vengeful, and  vindictive  God"  (Life  of  Franklin, 
Vol.  i.,  p.  71). 

"In  conversation  with  familiar  friends  he  called 
himself  a  Deist  or  Theist,  and  he  resented  a  sen- 
tence in  Mr.  Whitefield's  journal  which  seemed  to 
imply  that  between  a  Deist  and  an  Atheist  there 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  171 

was  little  or  no  difference.  Whitefield  wrote:  'M. 
B.  is  a  Deist;  I  had  almost  said  an  Atheist.'  'That 
is/  said  Franklin,  'chalk,  I  had  almost  said  char- 
coal" (Ibid,  Vol.  i.,  p.  319). 

At  the  age  of  eighty-four,  just  previous  to  his 
death,  in  reply  to  inquiries  concerning  his  reli- 
gious belief  from  Ezra  Stiles,  the  President  of 
Yale  College,  he  wrote  as  follows: 

'Here  is  my  creed:  I  believe  in  one  God,  the 
Creator  of  the  universe.  That  he  governs  it  by 
his  providence.  That  he  ought  to  be  worshiped. 
That  the  most  acceptable  service  we  render  him 
is  doing  good  to  his  other  children.  That  the  soul 
of  man  is  immortal,  and  will  be  treated  with  jus- 
tice in  another  life  respecting  its  conduct  in  this.'' 

This  is  pure  Deism.  Paine  and  Voltaire  would 
have  readily  subscribed  to  every  one  of  the  above 
six  articles  of  faith.  Compare  the  creed  of  Frank- 
lin with  the  creed  of  Paine. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  Franklin  had  much  to 
do  with  shaping  the  Deistic  belief  of  Paine.  Par- 
ton  says: 

"Paine  was  a  resident  of  Philadelphia,  a  fre- 
quenter of  Franklin's  house,  and  was  as  well 
aware  as  we  are  of  Dr.  Franklin's  religious  opin- 
ions. Kor  is  there  much  in  the  *Age  of  Reason'  to 
which  Franklin  would  have  refused  to  assent" 
(Life  of  Franklin,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  553). 


172  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

In  his  letter  to  Ezra  Stiles,  he  extols  the  sys- 
tem of  morals  taught  by  "Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  but 
says,  "I  apprehend  it  has  received  various  corrupt- 
ing changes,  and  I  have,  with  most  of  the  Dis- 
senters in  England,  doubts  as  to  his  divinity." 

There  was  "found"  in  Franklin's  handwriting, 
or  in  a  handwriting  resembling  his,  the  draught  of 
a  letter  advising  against  the  publication  of  an 
anti-religious  manuscript  which  had  been  submit- 
ted to  the  writer.  To  relieve  a  pressing  want 
some  enterprising  Christian  long  afterward  trans- 
formed this  letter  into  a  religious  novelette,  or 
tract,  altering  the  language  and  affirming  that  it 
was  written  by  Franklin  to  Paine  for  the  purpose 
of  dissuading  him  from  publishing  his  "Age  of 
Reason,"  the  manuscript  of  which  he  was  pre- 
sumed to  have  sent  to  Franklin  for  his  opinion.  It 
was  given  the  suggestive  title  "Don't  Unchain 
the  Tiger,"  and  published  as  "A  true  story."  In 
disproof  of  this  story,  the  following  facts  may  be 
cited: 

1.  The  "Age  of  Reason"  was  the  first  Anti- 
Christian  writing  that  came  from  Paine's  pen, 
and  he  expressly  declares  that  he  did  not  begin 
to  write  this  work  until  the  autumn  of  1793. 

2.  This  letter  purports  to  have  been  written 
July  3,  1786,  more  than  seven  years  before  Paine 
wrote  his  "Age  of  Reason." 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN.  173 

3.  Franklin,  its  reputed  author,  died  April  17, 
1790,  nearly  four  years  before  Paine's  book  was 
written. 

4.  The  letter  is  anonymous.  It  is  addressed 
to  no  one  and  signed  by  no  one.  It  cannot  be 
positively  affirmed  that  Franklin  wrote  it,  while 
it  can  be  afiQrmed  with  certainty  that  the  person 
to  whom  it  was  written  is  absolutely  unknown. 

5.  Freethought  was  widely  prevalent  at  the 
time  it  is  said  to  have  been  written.  Hundredn 
in  France,  England  and  America  were  talking 
and  writing  against  Christianity.  Why  then  was 
Paine  singled  out  as  the  one  who  provoked  the 
criticism? 

6.  Regarding  his  literary  productions  Paine 
says:  *^In  my  publications,  I  follow  the  rule  I  be- 
gan with  in  'Common  Sense,'  that  is  to  consult  no- 
body, nor  to  let  anybody  see  what  I  write  till  it 
appears  publicly." 

7.  The  religious  opinions  advanced  in  the  "Age 
of  Reason"  are  the  religious  opinons  which  Frank- 
lin held.  Is  it  reasonable  to  suppose  that  Frank- 
lin would  condemn  his  own  opinions? 

8.  There  are  several  versions  of  this  letter  ex- 
tant, all  differing  from  the  original.  It  has  been 
published  with  Paine's  name  prefixed,  and  Frank- 
lin's name  subscribed  to  it.      If  these  published 


174  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUE  REPUBLIC. 

versions  are  known  to  be  in  part  forgeries,  may 
not  the  original  be  a  forgery  also? 

9.  At  the  time  this  story  appeared  it  was  be- 
lieved that  no  greater  service  could  be  rendered 
religion  than  the  invention  and  circulation  of 
calumnies  against  Thomas  Paine. 

10.  Its  chief  disseminator  was  the  American 
Tract  Society,  a  society  that  has  probably  pub- 
lished more  pious  fictions  than  any  other  publish- 
ing house  in  this  country. 

Upon  this  story  and  his  motion  for  prayers  in 
the  Convention  that  framed  our  Constitution  is 
based  the  Christian  piety  of  Franklin.  Regard- 
ing the  latter,  it  is  only  necessary  to  remark  that 
it  was  in  harmony  with  the  second  and  third  ar- 
ticles of  his  Deistic  creed. 

Franklin's  motion  for  prayers  in  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  has  been  used  as  the  basis  for 
another  clerical  falsehood  that  has  been  presented 
to  the  eyes  or  ears  of  nearly  every  man,  woman 
and  child  in  the  United  States.  We  are  told  that 
the  Convention  for  a  month  opened  its  sessions 
without  prayer,  that  at  the  end  of  this  time  noth- 
ing had  been  accomplished,  it  was  in  a  state  of 
confusion,  and  on  the  point  of  adjourning,  when 
Franklin  came  forward,  proposed  that  the  ses- 
sions be  opened  with  prayer,  which  was  adopted, 
after  which  the  work  of  the  Convention  was  speed- 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  175 

ily  and  successfully  performed.  This  is  adduced 
as  a  striking  proof  of  the  efficacy  of  prayer.  The 
fact  is,  there  was  not  a  prayer  offered  in  the  Con- 
vention from  the  time  it  convened  until  it  closed. 
So  nearly  unanimous  were  the  members  in  their 
opposition  to  Franklin's  proposition  that  not  even 
a  vote  was  taken  on  it.  Franklin  himself,  refer- 
ring to  it,  says:  ''The  Convention,  except  three  or 
four  persons,  thought  prayers  unnecessary." 

Reference  may  be  made  here  to  the  oft-quoted 
Epitaph  of  Franklin.  Regarding  this  the  St.  Louis 
Globe  of  May  7,  1893,  says:  "This  was  written  by 
Franklin  simply  as  a  jest;  it  is  not  and  never  was 
on  his  gravestone." 

The  ''New  American  Cyclopedia"  contains  the 
following  relative  to  Franklin's  religion:  "Fault 
has  been  found  with  his  religious  character.  He 
confesses  that  during  a  period  of  his  life,  before 
the  age  of  twenty-one,  he  had  been  a  thorough 
Deist;  and  it  has  been  said  that  five  weeks  before 
his  death  he  expressed  a  'cold  approbation'  of  the 
'system  of  morals'  of  'Jesus  of  Nazareth.'  " 

Johnson's  "New  Universal  Cyclopedia"  says: 
"In  youth  he  was  an  avowed  skeptic  in  religious 
matters  and  of  somewhat  loose  morals,  but  his 
practical  good  sense  enabled  him  to  correct  his 
way  of  living,   and  he  in  later  life  treated  the 


176  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

Christian   religion   with   reverence,  though  never 
avowing  his  faith  in  any  religious  system." 

Sparks,  though  loth  to  admit  that  Franklin  was 
not  a  Christian,  says:  "It  is  deeply  to  be  regretted 
that  he  did  not  bestow  more  attention  than  he 
seems  to  have  done  on  the  evidences  of  Christian- 
ity" (Life  of  Franklin,  p.  517). 

The  truth  is,  Franklin  bestowed  more  attention 
on  the  evidences  of  Christianity  than  his  Christian 
biographer  is  willing  to  concede.  Had  he  bestowed 
less  attention  on  these  evidences  Christianity 
might  not  be  compelled  to  lose  the  prestige  of  his 
illustrious  name. 

Dr.  Franklin  and  Dr.  Priestley  were  intimate 
friends.    Of  Franklin,  Priestley  writes : 

"It  is  much  to  be  lamented  that  a  man  of  Frank- 
lin's general  good  character  and  great  influence 
should  have  been  an  unbeliever  in  Christianity, 
and  also  have  done  as  much  as  he  did  to  make 
others  unbelievers"  (Priestlej-'s  Autobiog.,  p.  60). 

This  great  man  was  himself  denounced  as  an 
Infidel.  He  was  a  Unitarian  of  the  most  advanced 
type,  and  was  mobbed  and  driven  from  England 
on  account  of  his  heretical  opinions  and  his  sym- 
pathy with  the  French  Revolution.  Franklin's 
Infidelity  must  have  been  of  a  very  radical  char- 
acter to  have  provoked  the  censure  of  Dr.  Priest- 
ley. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  177 

While  in  France,  Franklin  consorted  chiefly 
with  Freethinkers,  among  whom  were  Mirabeau, 
D'Holbach,  D'Alembert,  Buffon,  and  Condorcet. 
Respecting  his  religious  belief,  Parton  classes 
him  with  Goethe,  Schiller,  Voltaire,  Hume,  and 
Jefferson,  and  says  they  would  all  have  belonged 
to  the  same  church. 

John  Hay,  in  a  posthumous  article  on  "Frank- 
lin in  France,"  which  appeared  in  the  Century 
for  January,  1906,  says: 

''Franklin  became  the  fashion  of  the  season. 
For  the  court  itself  dabbled  a  little  in  liberal 
ideas.  So  powerful  was  the  vast  impulse  of  Free- 
thought  that  then  influenced  the  mind  of  France 
— that  susceptible  French  mind,  that  always  an- 
swers like  the  wind  harp  to  the  breath  of  every 
true  human  aspiration — that  even  the  highest 
classes  had  caught  the  infection  of  liberalism." 

Mr.  Hay  mentions  among  Franklin's  most  es- 
teemed acquaintances,  Voltaire,  D'Holbach,  Con- 
dorcet, and  D'Alembert,  four  of  France's  most  pro- 
nounced Infidels. 

Franklin  and  Voltaire,  a  short  time  before  the 
death  of  the  latter,  met  for  the  first  time  at  a 
theatre  in  Paris.  On  being  introduced,  they  cor- 
dially shook  hands.  But  this  was  not  enough. 
Each  then  clasped  the  other  in  his  arms,  and  for 
a  moment  held  him  in  an  affectionate  embrace.  It 


178  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

was  not  a  mere  formal  meeting  between  two  aged 
philosophers;  a  deeper  significance  attached  to  the 
interesting  scene.  It  was  the  spontaneous  out- 
burst of  kindred  feelings  and  a  common  faith.  It 
was  the  Deism  of  the  New  World,  through  its 
most  illustrious  representative,  saluting  that  of 
the  Old. 

Theodore  Parker,  who  made  a  study  of  Frank- 
lin's religious  opinions,  writes: 

"If  belief  in  the  miraculous  revelation  of  the 
Old  Testament  and  the  New  is  required  to  make 
a  man  religious,  then  Franklin  had  no  religion  at 
all.  It  would  be  an  insult  to  say  that  he  believed 
in  the  popular  theology  of  his  time,  or  of  ours,  for 
I  find  not  a  line  from  his  pen  indicating  any  such 
belief." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Swing,  of  Chicago,  said:  "Voltaire, 
Bolingbroke,  Pitt,  Burke,  Washington,  Lafayette, 
Jefferson,  Paine,  and  Franklin  moved  along  in  a 
wonderful  unity  of  belief,  both  political  and  re- 
ligious, each  one  wearing  some  little  beauty  or 
deformity  of  disposition,  but  all  marked  by  one 
religious  rationalism." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Savage,  of  New  York,  in  a  sermon 
on  Robert  G.  Ingersoll,  said: 

"His  [Ingersoll's]  ideas  are  very  largely  those  of 
Voltaire,  of  Gibbon,  of  Hume,  of  Thomas  Paine, 
of  Thomas  Jefferson,  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  and 


BENJAMIN  FEANKLIN.  179 

of  a  good  many  other  of  our  prominent  Revolu- 
tionary heroes." 

The  Hon.  Henry  W.  Blair,  United  States  Sena- 
tor from  New  Hampshire,  said  in  reply  to  Rev. 
Alonzo  Jones,  who  was  arguing  against  Sunday 
laws,  that  ''Franklin  was  a  Deist,  at  all  events," 
intimating  that  he  might  have  been  an  Agnostic, 
or  even  an  Atheist, 

Such  were  the  religious  opinions  of  Franklin. 
The  Christian  may,  with  Dr.  Priestley,  lament 
that  this  learned  man  "should  have  been  an  un- 
believer in  Christianity,"  but  notwithstanding  his 
lamentations  the  fact  remains.  He  may  distort 
it,  but  he  cannot  disprove  it.  As  Dr.  Wilson  said 
of  Washington,  so  must  it  be  said  of  Franklin — 
"He  was  a  Deist  and  nothing  more." 


CONCLUSION. 

I  have  adduced  abundant  evidence,  I  think,  to 
show  that  the  popular  notion  concerning  the  reli- 
gious opinions  of  these  great  men  is  erroneous. 
Paine,  we  have  seen,  was  not  an  Atheist.  Nor 
were  the  others  Christians.  They  were  Deists,  held 
substantially  the  same  theological  opinions  held 
by  Paine.  But,  engrossed  for  the  most  part  with 
other  affairs,  they  found  time  to  publish  no  "Age 
of  Reason"  to  be  a  standing  witness  of  their  un- 
belief, and  hence  escaped  the  malicious  shafts 
which  the  Author-IIero  was  doomed  to  receive. 

According  to  the  church,  every  person  has  at 
some  period  in  his  life  been  forced  to  acknowledge 
the  genuineness  of  her  dogmas.  The  more  con- 
servative Freethinkers  she  would  have  us  believe 
live  devoted  Christian  lives,  while  into  the  dying 
lips  of  the  more  radical  ones  she  puts  a  recanta- 
tion. Thus  with  consummate  coolness  she  in- 
forms us  that  Jefferson,  Washington,  and  Frank- 
lin procured  their  entire  religious  wardrobe  at  the 
Orthodox  clothing  emporium,  and  that  even  Paine 
was  obliged  to  order  his  shroud  from  this  estab- 
lishment. 

180 


CONCLUSION.  181 

But  these  claims,  unfounded  as  they  are,  must 
fall.  These  men  were  not  believers.  They  were 
good  and  virtuous  men,  but  not  Christians.  They 
were  eminent  and  patriotic  statesmen,  but  not 
"Christian  statesmen."  They  had  unbounded 
faith  in  humanity,  but  reposed  very  little  in  "our 
particular  superstition."  Morally  and  intellectual- 
ly they  were  giants,  and  their  large  hearts  and 
mighty  brains  yearned  and  grasped  for  something 
better,  for  a  broader,  holier  faith  than  that  pro- 
fessed by  those  around  them.  It  would  appear 
absurd  for  one  to  hold  up  the  toys  and  garments 
of  a  child  and  say,  "Behold  the  armor  that  Goliath 
wore!"  and  it  is  equally  absurd  for  Christians  to 
exhibit  their  dwarfish,  senseless  creeds  and  claim 
that  these  shrunken,  threadbare  robes  were  worn 
by  the  Fathers  of  our  Kepublic. 

To  the  realm  of  Freethought  these  characters 
belong.  And  they  are  not  alone;  they  have  illustri- 
ous company.  Earth's  noblest  sons  and  daugh- 
ters— the  brightest  stars  in  the  constellation  of 
genius — those  who  have  added  most  to  the  riches 
of  science,  and  literature,  and  statesmanship, — 
Bruno,  Spinoza,  Galileo,  and  Descartes;  Bacon 
and  Newton;  Humboldt  and  Darwin;  Comte  and 
Mill;  Draper;  Spencer,  Tyndall,  and  Huxley; 
Haeckel  and  Helmholtz;  Hume  and  Gibbon; 
Goethe  and  Schiller;    Shakespeare,    Pope,  Byron, 


182  THE  FATHERS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

Burns,  and  Shelley;  Rousseau,  Voltaire,  and  Did- 
erot; D'Alembert,  Buff  on,  and  Condorcet;  Fred- 
erick and  Bolingbroke;  Volney;  De  Stael,  Sand, 
Eliot,  and  Martineau;  Strauss  and  Renan;  Hugo, 
Carlyle,  and  Emerson;  Lincoln  and  Sumner; 
Gambetta  and  Garibaldi;  Bradlaugh  and  Castel- 
lar;  our  own  loved  Ingersoll — these  were  all  dis- 
believers in  the  Orthodox  faith — these  have  each 
borne  the  name  of  Infidel,  a  word  in  which  is  con- 
centrated all  the  hatred  and  scorn  of  Christendom. 
But  these  so-called  Infidels  have  ever  constituted 
the  forlorn  hope  in  the  onward  march  of  human 
progress,  and  this  word,  instead  of  a  term  of  re- 
proach, will  become  one  of  the  grandest  words  in 
all  the  languages  of  men. 


PART  II 


THE 

SAVIORS   OF   OUR    REPUBLIC: 

LINCOLN.   GRANT 


INTRODUCTION 

The  Republic  established  by  our  Fathers,  after 
euJuring  for  three-quarters  of  a  century,  was  men- 
aced by  destruction.  Slavery,  which  had  been 
planted  in  both  sections  of  the  Union,  had  proved 
unprofitable  in  the  North  and  profitable  in  the 
South.  The  South  sought  to  expand  the  influence 
of  the  institution,  the  North  sought  to  contract 
it.  "A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand." 
Either  slavery  or  the  nation  must  perish.  Com- 
promises had  proved  ineffectual.  There  was  an 
appeal  to  the  arbitrament  of  arms;  the  most  stu- 
pendous civil  conflict  the  world  has  witnessed 
followed;  the  South  went  down  in  defeat;  slavery 
perished,  and  the  Nation  lived. 

The  South  was  sincere  in  its  advocacy  of  slav- 
ery. Its  people  had  been  educated  to  believe  in 
its  justness.  They  had  been  taught  that  it  was 
divine.  The  Bible  sanctioned  it,  and  the  church 
upheld  it.  Those  who  believed  in  the  divinity  of 
this  institution — those  who  were  reduced  from  af- 
fluence to  poverty  by  its  abolition — can  never  be- 
come wholly  reconciled  to  the  new  order  of  things. 
But  aside  from  these  the  South  as  well  as  the 

iii 


iv  THE  SAVIORS  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

North  now  rejoices  that  the  Union  was  preserved 
and  the  Republic  saved. 

The  great  statesman  who  ruled  with  gentle 
hand,  and  guided  with  wondrous  skill  the  ship  of 
state  on  its  perilous  voyage,  and  the  great  cap- 
tain who  with  consummate  ability,  valor,  and  per- 
severance, conquered  the  rebellious  hosts,  were 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  Ulysses  S.  Grant.  By  near- 
ly all  the  North,  and  by  a  large  portion  of  the 
South,  these  men  are  held  in  loving  remembrance 
as  the  Saviors  of  our  Republic. 

While  the  president  of  the  Confederacy,  and  the 
general  of  its  vanquished  armies — a  statesman  of 
acknowledged  worth,  and  a  soldier  unsurpassed — 
were  devout  believers  in  Christianity,  their  vic- 
torious adversaries,  Lincoln  and  Grant,  were  dis- 
believers. If  the  God  of  Christians  be  the  God  of 
battles,  as  claimed,  he  fought  a  losing  fight,  or 
deserted  the  standard  of  his  devotees  for  that  of 
aliens. 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 


PREFACE. 


Almost  immediately  after  the  remains  of  America's 
most  illustrious  son  were  laid  to  rest  at  Springfield, 
one  of  his  biographers  put  forward  the  claim  that  he 
was  a  devout  believer  in  Christianity.  The  claim 
was  promptly  denied  by  the  dead  statesman's  friends, 
but  only  to  be  renewed  again,  and  again  denied.  And 
thus  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  question  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln's  religious  belief  has  been  tosser"  like  a 
battledoor  from  side  to  side. 

As  a  result  of  this  controversy,  thousands  have 
become  interested  in  a  subject  that  otherwise  might 
have  excited  but  little  interest.  This  is  the  writer's 
apology  for  collecting  the  testimony  of  more  than 
one  hundred  witnesses,  and  devoting  more  than  three 
hundred  pages  to  the  question,  "Was  Lincoln  a 
Christian?" 

About  few  other  men  has  so  much  been  written  as 
about  Abraham  Lincoln ;  while  no  other  American's 
life  has  engaged  the  pens  of  so  many  biographers. 
A  thonsand  volumes  record  his  name  and  refer  to 


VI  PREFACE. 

his  deeds.  In  a  hundred  of  these  he  is  the  central 
figure.  Nearly  a  score  of  elaborate  biographies  of 
him  have  been  written.  As  many  more  books  per- 
taining wholly  to  his  life,  his  martyrdom,  and  his 
character  have  been  published.  Of  the  many  works 
on  Lincoln  which  the  writer  has  consulted  in  the 
preparation  of  this  volume,  the  following  deserve  to 
be  mentioned  :  Nicolay  and  Hay's  "  Life  of  Lincoln," 
Herndon  and  Weik's  "  Life  of  Lincoln,"  Lamon's 
"Life  of  Lincoln,"  Holland's  "Life  of  Lincoln," 
Arnold's  "Life  of  Lincoln,"  Raymond's  "Life  of 
Lincoln,"  Stoddard's  "  Life  of  Lincoln,"  Barrett's 
"Life  of  Lincoln,"  "  Every-Day  Life  of  Lincoln," 
Arnold's  "Lincoln  and  Slavery,"  Carpenter's  "  Six 
Months  at  the  White  House  with  Lincoln,"  "  Remi- 
niscences of  Lincoln,"  "Anecdotes  of  Lincoln," 
"  Lincolniana,"  "The  President's  Words,"  "The 
Martyr's  Monument,"  "  Tribute  of  the  Nations  to 
Lincoln,"  "Lincoln  Memorial"  and  "Lincoln  Me- 
morial Album." 

The  testimony  concerning  Lincoln's  religious 
belief  presented  in  this  volume  has  been  derived 
chiefly  from  three  sources.  1.  A  part  of  it  has  been 
gathered  from  the  works  above  named.  In  a  single 
volume  is  published  for  the  first  time  matter  which 
heretofore  was  only  to  be  found  scattered  through 
numerous  volumes,  some  of  them  inaccessible  to 
the  general  reader.    2.  A  considerable  portion  of  it 


PREFACE.  yii 

has  been  gleaned  from  newspapers  and  periodicals 
containing  statements  brought  out  by  this  contro- 
versy, many  of  which  woukl  otherwise  soon  be  lost 
or  forgotten.  3.  A  very  large  share  of  it  has  been 
obtained  by  the  writer  from  personal  friends  of  Lin- 
coln ;  and  when  we  realize  how  rapidly  those  who 
lived  and  moved  with  him  are  passing  away — that 
erelong  none  of  them  will  remain  to  testify — the  im- 
portance of  this  evidence  can  hardly  be  overestimated. 

The  writer  believes  that  he  has  fully  established 
the  negative  of  the  proposition  that  forms  the  title 
of  his  book.  He  does  not  expect  to  silence  the 
claims  of  the  affirmative  ;  but  he  has  furnished  an 
arsenal  of  facts  whereby  these  claims  may  be  ex- 
posed and  refuted  as  often  as  made. 

This  effort  to  prove  that  Lincoln  was  not  a  Chris- 
tian will  be  condemned  by  many  as  an  attempt  to 
fasten  a  stain  upon  this  great  man's  character.  But 
the  demonstration  and  perpetuation  of  this  fact  will 
only  add  to  his  greatness.  It  will  show  that  he 
was  in  advance  of  his  generation.  The  fame  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  belongs  not  to  this  age  alone,  but 
will  endure  for  all  time.  The  popular  faith  is  tran- 
sient and  must  perish.  It  is  unpopular  now  to  reject 
Christianity,  but  the  day  is  fast  approaching  when 
to  accept  its  dogmas  will  be  considered  an  evideuce 
of  human  weakness.  To  perpetuate  the  claim  that 
Lincoln  was  a  Christian  is  to  perpetuate  an  idea 


viii  PREFACE. 

that  in  a  future  age  will  lessen  the  luster  of  his 
name. 

It  will  be  urged  by  some  that  the  intent  and  pur- 
pose of  this  work  is  solely  to  promote  the  interests 
of  Freethought.  But  it  is  not.  The  writer  advo- 
cates no  cause  that  requires  the  prestige  of  a  great 
name  to  make  it  respectable.  The  cause  that  re- 
quires the  indorsement  of  the  great  to  sustain  it  is 
not  worthy  to  survive.  He  has  prosecuted  this  in- 
vestigation, not  in  the  interest  of  any  belief  or 
creed,  but  in  the  interest  of  truth ;  and  truth  is 
certainly  as  high  as  any  creed,  even  if  that  creed 
be  true.  In  proving  Lincoln  a  disbeliever  he  does 
not  presume  to  have  proved  Christianity  false,  or 
Freethought  true ;  but  he  has  shown  that  some 
Christians  are  not  honest,  and  that  an  honest  man 
may  be  a  Freethinker. 

Atchison,  Kan.,  April,  1893. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

CHRISTIAN   TESTIMONY. 

Dr.  J.  G.  Holland — Hon.  Newton  Bateman— Rev.  J.  A.  Reed — Rev. 
James  Smith,  D.D. — N.  W.  Edwards— Thomas  Lewis— Noah  Brooks — 
Rev.  Byron  Sunderland,  D.D. — Rev.  Dr.  Miner — Rev.  Dr.  Gurley — 
Hon.  I.  N.  Arnold— F.  B.  Carpenter— Lsaac  Hawley — Rev.  Mr.  Willets 
— A  Pious  Nurse— TFesde?*n  Christian  Advocate — An  Illinois 
Clergyman — Rev.  J.  H.  Barrows,  D.D. — Rev.  Francis  Vinton,  D.D. — 
Bishop  Simpson. 

CHAPTER  11. 

REVIEW  OP  CHRISTIAN  TESTIMONY — HOLLAND   AND   BATE- 
MAN. 

Character  of  Holland's  "  Life  of  Lincoln  " — The  Bateman  Interview — 
Inconsistency  and  untruthfulness  of  its  statements — Holland's  Subse- 
quent Modification  and  Final  Abandonment  of  his  original  Claims. 

CHAPTER    III. 

REVIEW   OF  CHRISTIAN    TESTIMONY — REED   AND   HIS   WIT- 
NESSES. 

Reed — Smith — Edwards — Lewis — Brooks — Statements  of  Edwards, 
Smith,  and  Brooks  Compared — Sunderland — Miner — Gur.ey — Failure  of 
Beed  to  Establish  his  Claims. 


S  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEK   IV. 

REVIEW  OF  CHRISTIAN   TESTIMONY — ARNOLD  AND    OTHER 

WITNESSES. 

Arnold's  "  Life  of  Lincoln  " — Claims  Concerning  Lincoln's  Religious 
Belief — Address  to  Negroes  of  Baltimore — Carpenter — Hawley — Willets 
— Pious  Nurse—  Western  Christian  Advocate — Illinois  Clergyman 
— Barrows — Vinton — Simpson. 

CHAPTER  V. 

TESTIMONY  OF    HON.   WILLIAM    H.    HERNDON — PUBLISHED 
TESTIMONY. 

Herndon's  Association  with  Lincoln — Character — Writings — Com- 
petency as  a  Witness — The  Abbott  Letter — (contribution  to  the  Liberal 
Age — Article  in  the  Truth  Seeker — Herndon's  "  Life  of  Lincoln." 

CHAPTER   VI. 

TESTIMONY  OF  HON.  WILLIAM  H.  HERNDON — UNPUBLISHED 
TESTIMONY. 

Extracts  from  Herndon's  Letters — The  Books  Lincoln  Read — His 
Philosophy — His  Infidelity — Refutation  of  Christian  Claims — Attempts 
to  Invalidate  Herndon's  Testimony — Reed's  Calumnies — Vindication. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

TESTIMONY  OF  COL.   WARD    H.   LAMON. 

Lamon's  "Life  of  Lincoln" — Lincoln's  Early  Skepticism — His  Inves- 
tigations at  New  Salem — His  Book  on  Infidelity — His  Religious  Opin- 
ions Remain  Unchanged — Holland's  Condemnation  of  Lamon's  Work — 
Holland's  and  Lamon's  Works  Compared. 


CONTENTS.  si 

CHAPTEK  VIII. 

TESTIMONY   OF    LAMON's   WITNESSES — HON.   J.    T.    BTDART 
AND    COL.   J.    H.    MATHENY. 

Testimony  of  Hon.  Johu  T.  Stuart — Testimony  of  Col.  James  H.  Ma- 
theny — Stuart's  Disclaimer — Matheny's  Disclaimer — Examination  and 
Authorship  of  Disclaimers,  Including  the  Edwards  and  Lewis  Lettert. 

CHAPTEK  IX. 

TESTIMONY  OP  LAMON's   WITNESSES — CONCLUDED. 

Dr.  C.   H.  Ray— Wm.  H.  Hannah,  Esq James    W.  Keys — Hon. 

jesso  "W.  Fell— Col.  John  G.  Nicolay— Hon.  David  Davis — Mrs.  Mary 
Lincoln — Injustice  to  Mrs.  Lincoln — Answer  to  Reed's  Pretended  Ref- 
utation of  the  Testimony  of  Lamon's  Witnesses. 

CHAPTER  X. 

TESTIMONY  OP  LINCOLN'S    RELATIVES   AND  INTIMATE   AS- 
SOCIATES. 

Mrs.  Sarah  Lincoln — Dennis  F.  Hanks — Mrs.  MatUda  Moore — John 
Hall — Wm.  McNeely — Mr.  Lynan— James  B.  Spaulding — Ezra  String- 
ham — Dr.  G.  H  Ambrose — Wm.  G.  Green — Joshua  F.  Speed — John 
Decamp — Green  Caruthers — J.  H.  Cheneiy — Squire  Perkins — W.  Per- 
kins— Hon.  Joseph  Gillespie — James  Gorley — Dr.  Wm.  Jayne — Hon. 
Jesse  K.  Dubois — Judge  Stephen  T.  Logan — Hon.  Leonard  Swett 

CHAPTER  XI. 

TESTIMONY  OF  FRIENDS  AND  ACQUAINTANCES   OF  LINCOLN 
WHO   KNEW  HIM  IN  ILLINOIS. 

Hon.  W.  H.  T.  Wakefield— Hon.  D.  W.  Wilder— Dr.  B.  P.  Gardner- 
Eon.  J.  K.  Vandermark— A.  Jeffrey — Dr.  Arch  E.  McNeal — Charles 
McOrew—Edward  Butler- Joseph  Stafford— Judge  A.  D.  Norton— 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

J.  L.  Morrell — Mahlon  Ross — L.  "Wilson — H.  K.  Magie — Hon.  Jamey 
Tuttle — Col.  F.  S.  Rutherford — Judge  Robert  Leachman — Hon.  Orin  B. 
Gould— M.  S.  Growin— Col.  R.  G.  IngersoU — Leonard  "W.  Volk — Joseph 
Jefferson — Hon.  E.  B.  Washburn — Hon.  E.  M.  Haines. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

TESTIMONY   OF  FRIENDS  AND  ACQUAINTANCES   OF  LINOOLN 
WHO   KNEW   HIM   IN   WASHINGTON. 

Hon.  Geo.  W.  Julian — Hon.  John  B.  Alley— Hon.  Hugh  McCul- 
loch — Donn  Piatt — Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax — Hon.  Geo.  S.  Boutwell — 
Hon.  Wra.  D.  Kelly — E.  H.  Wood — Dr.  J.  J.  Thompson— Rev.  James 
Shrigley — Hon.  John  Covode — Jas.  E.  Murdock — Hon.  M.  B.  Field — 
Harriet  Beecher  Stowe — Hon.  J.  P.  Usher — Hon.  S.  P.  Chase — 
Frederick  Douglas — Mr.  Defrees — Hon.  Wm.  H.  Seward — Judge  Aaron 
Goodrich — Nicolay  and  Hay's  "Life  of  Lincoln" — Warren  Chase— 
Hon.  A.  J.  Grover — Judge  James  M.  Nelson. 

CHAPTER    XIII. 

OTHER  TESTIMONY  AND   OPINIONS. 

New  York  World — Boston  Olohe — Chicago  Herald—ManforcCa 
Magazine — Herald  and  Review — Chambers's  P^ncyclopedia — 
Encyclopedia  Britannica — People's  Library  of  Information — The 
World's  Sages — Every-Day  Life  of  Lincoln — Hon.  Jesse  W.  Weik — 
Chas.  W.  French — Cyrus  0.  Poole — A  Citizen  of  Springfield — Henry 
Walker — Wm.  Biasett — Frederick  Heath — Rev.  Edward  Eggleston — 
Rev.  Robert  Collyer — AUen  Thorndike  Rice— Robert  C.  Adams — 
Theodore  Stanton— Geo.  M.  McCrie — Gen.  M.  M.  Tnimbull — Rev. 
David  Swing,  D.D. — Rev.  J.  Lloyd  Jones — Rev.  John  W.  Chadwick. 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

EVIDENCE     GATHERED     FROM     LINCOLN'S     LETTERS, 
SPEECHES,    AND    CONVERSATIONS. 

The  Bible  and  Christianity — Christ's  Divinity — Future  Rewards  and 
Punishments — Freedom    of     Mind — FataUsm — Providence — Lines    in 


CONTENTS.  XIU 

Copy-book — Parker — Paine^Opposition  of  Church — Clerical  Officious- 

ness  Rebuked — Irreverent  Jokes — Profanity — Temperance  Reform — In- 
dorsement of  Lord  Bolingbroke's  Writings — Q-olden  Rule. 

CHAPTEK    XV. 

Beoapitulation  and  Conclusion. 

Character  of  Christian  Testimony — Summary  of  Evidence  Adduced 
in  Proof  of  Lincoln's  Unbelief — Pouglas  an  Unbeliever — Theodore 
Parker's  Theology — Fallacy  of  Claims  Respecting  Lincoln's  Reputed 
Conversion — His  Invocations  of  Deity — His  Alleged  Regard  for  the 
Sabbath — The  Church  and  Hypocrisy — Lincoln's  Religion. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Was  Abraham  Lincoln  a  Christian  ?  Many  confi- 
dently believe  and  earnestly  contend  that  he  was ; 
others  as  confidently  believe  and  as  earnestly  con- 
tend that  he  was  not. 

Before  attempting  to  answer  this  question,  let  us 
define  what  constitutes  a  Christian.  A  Christian  is 
one  who,  in  common  with  the  adherents  of  nearly 
all  the  religions  of  mankind,  believes,  1.  In  the  ex- 
istence of  a  God ;  2.  In  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 
As  distinguished  from  the  adherents  of  other  relig- 
ions, he  believes,  1.  That  the  Bible  is  a  revelation 
from  God  to  man ;  2.  That  Jesus  Christ  was  the 
miraculously  begotten  son  of  God.  He  also  believes 
in  various  other  doctrines  peculiar  to  Christianity, 
the  chief  of  which  are,  1.  The  fall  of  man ;  2.  The 
atonement. 

Those  who  in  nominally  Christian  countries  reject 
the  dogmas  of  Christianity  are  denominated  Infi- 
dels, Freethinkers,  Liberals,  Rationalists,  unbeliev- 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

ers,  disbelievers,  skeptics,  etc.  Tliese  lufidels,  or 
Freethinkers,  represent  various  pliases  of  belief, 
among  which  are,  1.  Deists,  who  affirm  the  existence 
of  a  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  2.  Atheists, 
who  deny  the  existence  of  a  God,  and,  generally,  the 
soul's  immortality ;  3.  Agnostics,  who  neither  affirm 
nor  deny  these  doctrines. 

The  following  are  the  religious  views  Lincoln  is 
said  to  have  held  as  presented  by  those  who  affirm 
that  he  was  a  Christian : 

1.  He  believed  in  the  existence  of  a  God,  and  ac- 
cepted the  Christian  conception  of  this  Being. 

2.  He  believed  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and 
in  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  resurrection. 

3.  He  believed  that  the  Bible  is  a  revelation  from 
God — the  only  revealed  will  of  God. 

4  He  believed  in  the  divinity  of  Christ — believed 
that  Christ  is  God. 

5.  He  believed  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  and  was 
accustomed  to  pray  himself. 

6.  He  believed  in  the  doctrine  of  experimental  re- 
ligion, and  had  experienced  a  change  of  heart. 

7.  Although  he  never  united  with  any  church,  he 
was  contemplating  such  a  step  at  the  time  of  his  as- 
sassination. 

8.  The  church  with  which  he  would  have  united, 
we  are  led  to  infer,  was  the  Presbyterian. 

The  following  is  a  statement  of  the  theological 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

opinions  of  Lincoln  as  understood  by  those  who  deny 
tliat  he  was  a  Christian  : 

1.  In  regard  to  a  Supreme  Being  he  entertained  at 
times  Agnostic  and  even  Atheistic  opinions.  During 
tlie  later  years  of  his  life,  however,  he  professed  a 
sort  of  Deistic  belief,  but  he  did  not  accept  the 
Christian  or  anthropomorphic  conception  of  a 
Deity. 

2.  So  far  as  the  doctrine  of  immortality  is  con- 
cerned, he  was  an  Agnostic. 

3.  He  did  not  believe  in  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.  He  believed  that 
Burns  and  Paine  were  as  much  inspired  as  David 
and  Paul. 

4.  He  did  not  believe  in  the  doctrine  of  Christ's 
divinity.  He  afl&rmed  that  Jesus  was  either  the  son 
of  Joseph  and  Mary,  or  the  illegitimate  son  of  Mary. 

5.  He  did  not  believe  in  the  doctrine  of  a  special 
creation. 

6.  He  believed  in  the  theory  of  Evolution,  so  far 
as  this  theory  had  been  developed  in  his  time. 

7.  He  did  not  believe  in  miracles  and  special 
providences.  He  believed  that  all  things  are  gov- 
erned by  immutable  laws,  and  that  miracles  and 
special  providences,  in  the  evangelical  sense  of  these 
terms,  are  impossible. 

8.  He  rejected  the  doctrine  of  total,  or  inherent 
depravity. 


18  INTRODUCTION. 

9.  He  repudiated  the  doctrine  of  vicarious  atone- 
ment. 

10.  He  condemned  the  doctrine  of  forgiveness  for 
sin. 

11.  He  opposed  the  doctrine  of  future  rewards  and 
punishments. 

12.  He  denied  the  doctrine  of  the  freedom  of  th* 
will. 

13.  He  did  not  believe  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer  ai 
understood  by  orthodox  Christians. 

14.  He  indorsed,  for  the  most  part,  the  criticisms 
of  Thomas  Paine  on  the  Bible  and  Christianity,  and 
accepted,  to  a  great  extent,  the  theological  and  hu- 
manitarian views  of  Theodore  Parker. 

15.  He  wrote  a  book  (which  was  suppressed) 
against  the  Bible  and  Christianity. 

16.  His  connection  with  public  affairs  prevented 
him  from  giving  prominence  to  his  religious  opin- 
ions during  the  later  years  of  his  life,  but  his  earlier 
views  concerning  the  unsoundness  of  the  Christian 
system  of  religion  never  underwent  any  material 
change,  and  he  died,  as  he  had  lived,  an  unbeliever. 


"%:' 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN:  WAS  HE 
A  CHRISTIAN? 


CHAPTER  I. 

OHBISTIAN   TESTIMONY. 

Dr.  J.  G.  Holland — Hon.  Newton  Bateman— Rev.  J.  A.  Reed— Rev. 
James  Smith,  D.D. — N.  W.  Edwards— Thomas  Lewis— Noah  Brooks — 
Rev.  Byroa  Sunderland,  D.D. — Rev.  Dr.  Miner — Rev.  Dr.  Gurley — 
Hon.  I.  N.  Arnold— F.  B.  Carpenter— Isaac  Hawley — Rev.  Mr.  "Willets 
— A  Pious  Nurse—  Western  Christian  Advocate — An  Illinois 
Clergyman— Rev.  J.  H.  Barrows,  D.D. — Rev.  Francis  Vinton,  D.D. — 
Bishop  Simpson. 

In  confirmation  of  tlie  claim  that  Lincoln  was  a 
Christian,  the  following  evidence  has  been  adduced  : 

DR.  J.  G.  HOLLAND. 

President  Lincoln  died  on  the  15th  of  April,  1865. 
In  the  same  year,  the  "  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln," 
written  by  Dr.  J.  G.  Holland,  appeared.  In  the 
fields  of  poetry  and  fiction,  and  as  a  magazine  writer, 
Dr.  Holland  had  achieved  an  enviable  reputation. 
His  "Life  of  Lincoln"  was  written  in  his  usually 


20  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

entertaining  style  and  secured  a  wide  circulation. 
He  affirmed  that  Lincoln  was  a  Christian,  and  by 
means  of  this  work,  and  through  Scribner's  Magazine, 
of  which  he  was  for  many  years  the  editor,  contrib- 
uted more  than  any  other  person  to  render  a  belief 
in  this  claim  popular.  Referring  to  Lincoln's  admin- 
istration, Dr.  Holland  says : 

"  The  power  of  a  true-hearted  Christian  man,  in 
perfect  sympathy  with  a  true-hearted  Christian  peo- 
ple, was  Mr.  Lincoln's  power.  Open  on  one  side  of 
his  nature  to  all  descending  influences  from  him  to 
whom  he  prayed,  and  open  on  the  other  to  all  as- 
cending influences  from  the  people  whom  he  served, 
he  aimed  simply  to  do  his  duty  to  God  and  man. 
Acting  rightly  he  acted  greatly.  While  he  took 
care  of  deeds  fashioned  by  a  purely  ideal  standard, 
God  took  care  of  results.  Moderate,  frank,  truthful, 
gentle,  forgiving,  loving,  just,  Mr.  Lincoln  will  al- 
ways be  remembered  as  eminently  a  Christian  Presi- 
dent ;  and  the  almost  immeasurably  great  results 
which  he  had  the  privilege  of  achieving  were  due  to 
the  fact  that  he  was  a  Christian  President "  (Life  of 
Lincoln,  p.  542). 

HON.  NEWTON  BATSMAN. 

Dr.  Holland's  claim  rests  chiefly  upon  a  confession 
which  Lincoln  is  said  to  liave  made  to  Newton 
Bateman  in  1860.     During  the  Presidential  campaign 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  '21 

Lincoln  occupied  the  Executive  Chamber  at  the 
State  House.  Mr.  Bateman  was  Superintendent  of 
Public  Instruction  at  the  time,  had  his  oflB.ce  in  the 
same  building,  and  was  frequently  in  Lincoln's  room. 
The  conversation  in  which  Lincoln  is  alleged  to  have 
expressed  a  belief  in  Christianity  is  thus  related  in 
Holland's  "  Life  of  Lincoln  :" 

"  On  one  of  these  occasions  Mr.  Lincoln  took  up  a 
book  containing  a  careful  canvass  of  the  city  of 
Springfield  in  whicli  he  lived,  showing  the  candidate 
for  whom  each  citizen  had  declared  it  his  intention  to 
vote  in  the  approaching  election.  Mr.  Lincoln's 
friends  had,  doubtless  at  his  own  request,  placed 
the  result  of  the  canvass  in  his  hands.  This  was 
toward  the  close  of  October,  and  only  a  few  days  be- 
fore the  election.  Calling  Mr.  Bateman  to  a  seat  at 
his  side,  having  previously  locked  all  the  doors,  he 
said  :  '  Let  us  look  over  this  book.  I  wish  particu- 
larly to  see  how  the  ministers  of  Springfield  are  going 
to  vote.'  The  leaves  were  turned,  one  by  one,  and 
as  the  names  were  examined  Mr.  Lincoln  frequently 
asked  if  this  one  and  that  were  not  a  minister,  or  an 
elder,  or  the  member  of  such  or  such  a  church,  and 
sadly  expressed  his  surprise  on  receiving  an  aflfirma- 
tive  answer.  In  that  manner  they  went  through  the 
book,  and  then  he  closed  it  and  sat  silently  and  for 
some  minutes  regarding  a  memorandum  in  pencil 
which  lay  before  him.     At  length  he  turned  to  Mr. 


22  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

Bateman,  with  a  face  full  of  sadness,  and  said  :  *  Here 
are  twenty-three  ministers,  of  different  denomina- 
tions, and  all  of  them  are  against  me  but  three ;  and 
here  are  a  great  many  prominent  members  of  the 
churches,  a  very  large  majority  of  whom  are  against 
me.  Mr.  Bateman,  I  am  not  a  Christian — God 
knows  I  would  be  one — but  I  have  carefully  read  the 
Bible,  and  I  do  not  so  understand  this  book  ;'  and  he 
drew  from  his  bosom  a  pocket  New  Testament. 
*  These  men  well  know,'  he  continued,  '  that  I  am  for 
freedom  in  the  territories,  freedom  everywhere  as 
far  as  the  Constitution  and  laws  will  permit,  and  that 
my  opponents  are  for  slavery.  They  know  this, 
and  yet,  with  this  book  in  their  hands,  in  the  light 
of  which  human  bondage  cannot  live  a  moment,  they 
are  going  to  vote  against  me.  I  do  not  understand 
it  at  all.'  Here  Mr.  Lincoln  paused — paused  for 
long  minutes — his  features  surcharged  with  emotion. 
Then  he  rose  and  walked  up  and  down  the  room  in 
the  effort  to  retain  or  regain  his  self-possession. 
Stopping  at  last,  he  said,  with  a  trembling  voice  and 
his  cheeks  wet  with  tears  :  '  I  know  there  is  a  God, 
and  that  he  hates  injustice  and  slavery.  I  see  the 
storm  coming,  and  I  know  that  his  hand  is  in  it.  If 
he  has  a  place  for  me — and  I  think  he  has — I  believe 
I  am  ready.  I  am  nothing,  but  truth  is  everything. 
I  know  I  am  right,  for  Christ  teaches  it,  and  Christ 
ie  God.' 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  23 

'*  The  effect  of  this  conversation  upon  the  mind  of 
Mr.  Bateman,  a  Christian  gentleman  whom  Mr.  Lin- 
coln profoundly  respected,  was  to  convince  him  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  had,  in  his  quiet  way,  found  a  path  to 
the  Christian  standpoint — that  he  had  found  God, 
and  rested  on  the  eternal  truth  of  God.  As  the  two 
men  were  about  to  separate,  Mr.  Bateman  remarked  : 
*  I  have  not  supposed  that  you  were  accustomed  to 
think  so  much  upon  this  class  of  subjects.  Certainly 
your  friends  generally  are  ignorant  of  the  sentiments 
you  have  expressed  to  me.'  He  replied  quickly  :  '  I 
know  they  are.  I  am  obliged  to  appear  different  to 
them  ;  but  I  think  more  upon  these  subjects  than 
upon  all  others,  and  I  have  done  so  for  years  ;  and  I 
am  willing  that  you  should  know  it '  "  (Life  of  Lin- 
coln, pp.  236-239). 

REV.  J.  A.  REED. 

In  1872,  seven  years  after  the  publication  of  Hol- 
land's work,  Lamon's  "  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln " 
was  published.  In  this  work  the  statements  of  Hol- 
land and  Bateman  concerning  Lincoln's  religious 
belief  are  disputed,  and  the  testimony  of  numerous 
witnesses  cited  to  prove  that  he  lived  and  died  a  dis- 
believer. Soon  after  Lamon's  book  was  published, 
the  Rev.  J.  A.  Reed,  a  Presbyterian  clergyman,  of 
Springfield,  111.,  delivered  a  lecture  in  which  he  at- 
tempted to  refate  or  modify  the  evidence  of  Lamon'g 


24  ABKAHAM  LINCOLN: 

witnesses  and  prove  that  Lincoln  died  a  Christian. 
He  admitted  that  Lincoln  was  an  Infidel  up  to  1848, 
and  possibly  as  late  as  1862,  but  endeavored  to  show 
that  previous  to  his  death  he  changed  his  views  and 
became  a  Christian.  The  following  extracts  present 
the  salient  points  in  his  discourse  : 

"  Having  shown  what  claims  Mr.  Lamon's  book 
has  to  being  the  '  only  fair  and  reliable  history  '  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  life  and  views,  and  of  what  '  trust- 
worthy materials '  it  is  composed,  I  shall  now  give 
the  testimony  I  have  collected  to  establish  what  has 
ever  been  the  public  impression,  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  in  his  later  life,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death,  a 
firm  believer  in  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion. 
The  Infidelity  of  his  earlier  life  is  not  so  much  to  be 
wondered  at,  when  we  consider  the  poverty  of  his 
early  religious  instruction  and  the  peculiar  influences 
by  which  he  was  surrounded." 

"  It  does  not  appear  that  he  had  ever  seen,  much 
less  read,  a  work  on  the  evidences  of  Christianity  till 
his  interview  with  Rev.  Dr.  Smith  in  1848.  We  hear 
of  him  as  reading  Paine,  Voltaire,  and  Theodore 
Parker,  but  nothing  on  the  other  side. 

"  While  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
not  spared  to  indicate  his  religious  sentiments  by  a 
profession  of  his  faith  in  accordance  with  the  insti- 
tutions of  the  Christian  religion,  yet  it  is  very  clear 
that  he  had  this  step  in  view,  and  was  seriously  con- 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  26 

templating  it,  as  a  sense  of  its  fitness  and  an  appre- 
hension of  his  duty  grew  upon  him.' 

In  support  of  his  claims,  Dr.  Reed  presents  the 
testimony  of  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  Ninian  W.  Edwards, 
Thomas  Lewis,  Noah  Brooks,  Rev.  Dr.  Sunderland, 
Rev.  Dr.  Miner,  and  Rev.  Dr.  Gurley. 

REV.  JAMES   SMITH.  D.D. 

The  Rev.  James  Smith  was  for  many  years  pastor 
of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Springfield. 
Lincoln  formed  his  acquaintance  soon  after  he  lo- 
cated there,  remained  on  friendly  terms  with  him, 
and  with  Mrs.  Lincoln  frequently  attended  his 
church.  Dr.  Smith  was  one  of  the  three  Springfield 
clergymen  who  supported  Lincoln  for  President  in 
1860,  and  in  recognition  of  his  friendship  and  fidel- 
ity, he  received  the  consulship  at  Dundee.  Dr.  Reed 
quotes  from  a  letter  to  W.  H.  Herndon,  dated  East 
Cainno,  Scotland,  January  24,  1867,  in  which  Dr. 
Smith  says  : 

"  It  is  a  very  easy  matter  to  prove  that  while  I  was 
pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Spring- 
field, Mr.  Lincoln  did  avow  his  belief  in  the  divine 
authority  and  inspiration  of  the  scriptures,  and  I 
hold  that  it  is  a  matter  of  the  last  importance  not 
only  to  the  present,  but  all  future  generations  of  the 
great  Republic,  and  to  all  advocates  of  civil  and  re- 
ligious liberty  throughout  the  world,  that  this  avowal 


26  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

on  his  part,  and  the  circumstances  attending  it, 
together  with  very  interesting  incidents  illustrative 
of  the  excellence  of  his  character,  in  my  possession, 
should  be  made  known  to  the  public.  ...  It 
was  my  honor  to  place  before  Mr.  Lincoln  arguments 
designed  to  prove  the  divine  authority  and  inspira- 
tion of  the  scriptures  accompanied  by  the  arguments 
of  Infidel  objectors  in  their  own  language.  To  the 
arguments  on  both  sides  Mr.  Lincoln  gave  a  most 
patient,  impartial,  and  searching  investigation.  To 
use  his  own  language,  he  examined  the  arguments  as 
a  lawyer  who  is  anxious  to  reach  the  truth  investi- 
gates testimony.  The  result  was  the  announcement 
by  himself  that  the  argument  in  favor  of  the  divine 
authority  and  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  was  un- 
answerable." 

HOM.  NINIAN   W.  EDWARDS. 

Ninian  W.  Edwards,  a  brother-in-law  of  Lincoln, 
writes  as  follows  : 

"  Springfield,  Dec.  24th,  1872. 
"  Eev.  Jas.  A.  Eeed  : 
"  Dear  Sir— 

"A  short  time  after  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith  became 
pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  church  in  this  city, 
Mr.  Lincoln  said  to  me,  '  I  have  been  reading  a  work 
of  Dr.  Smith  on  the  evidences  of  Christianity,  and 
have  heard  him  preach  and  converse  on  the  subject, 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  27 

and  I  am  now  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  Christian 
religion.'  Yours  truly, 

"  N.  W.  Edwards." 

THOMAS  LEWIS. 

In  corroboration  of  Mr.  Edwards's  statement, 
Thomas  Lewis,  of  Springfield,  111.,  testifies  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  Springfield,  Jan.  6th,  1873. 

"  Rev.  J.  A.  Reed : 

"  Dear  Sir— 
"  Not  long  after  Dr.  Smith  came  to  Springfield, 
and  I  think  very  near  the  time  of  his  son's  death, 
Mr.  Lincoln  said  to  me,  that  when  on  a  visit  some- 
where, he  had  seen  and  partially  read  a  work  of  Dr. 
Smith  on  the  evidences  of  Christianity  which  had 
led  him  to  change  his  views  about  the  Christian 
religion ;  that  he  would  like  to  get  that  work  to 
finish  the  reading  of  it,  and  also  to  make  the  ac- 
quaintance of  Dr.  Smith.  I  was  an  elder  in  Dr. 
Smith's  church,  and  took  Dr.  Smith  to  Mr.  Lincoln's 
office  and  introduced  him ;  and  Dr.  Smith  gave  Mr. 
Lincoln  a  copy  of  his  book,  as  I  know,  at  his  own 
request.  Yours  etc., 

"  Thos.  Lewis." 

NOAH  BROOKS. 
Noah  Brooks,  a  newspaper  correspondent  of  New 


28  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

York,  and  the  author  of  a  biography  of  Lincoln, 
gives  the  following  testimony  : 

"New  York,  Dec.  31, 1872. 
"  Key.  J.  A.  Keed, 

"  My  Dear  Sir  : 
"  In  addition  to  what  has  appeared  from  my  pen, 
I  will  state  that  I  have  had  many  conversations  with 
Mr.  Lincoln,  which  were  more  or  less  of  a  religious 
character,  and  while  I  never  tried  to  draw  anything 
like  a  statement  of  his  views  from  him,  yet  he  freely 
expressed  himself  to  me  as  having  '  a  hope  of  blessed 
immortality    through    Jesus    Christ.'      His     views 
seemed  to  settle  so  naturally  around  that  statement, 
that  I  considered  no  other  necessary.     His  language 
seemed    not    that     of     an     inquirer,    but    of    one 
who  had  a  prior  settled  belief  in  the  fundamental 
doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion.     Once  or  twice, 
speaking  to  me  of  the  change  which  had  come  upon 
him,   he  said,  while  he  could  not  fix  any    definite 
time,  yet  it  was  after  he  came  here,  and  I  am  very 
positive  that  in  his  own  mind  he  identified  it  with 
about  the  time  of  Willie's  death.     He  said,  too,  that 
after  he  went  to  the  White  House  he  kept  up  the 
habit  of  daily  prayer.     Sometimes  he   said  it  was 
only  ten  words,  but  those  ten  words  he  had.     There 
is  no  possible  reason  to  suppose  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
would  ever  deceive  me  as  to  his  religious  sentiments. 
In  many  conversations  with  him,  I  absorbed  the  firm 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  29 

conviction  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  at  heart  a  Christian 
man,  believed  in  the  Savior,  and  was  seriously  con- 
sidering the  step  which  would  formally  connect  him 
with  the  visible  church  on  earth.  Certainly,  any 
suggestion  as  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  skepticism  or  Infidel- 
ity, to  me  who  knew  him  intimately  from  1862  till 
the  time  of  his  death,  is  a  monstrous  fiction — a 
shocking  perversion. 

"  Yours  truly, 

"  Noah  Brooks." 

REV.  BYRON  SUNDERLAND.  D.D. 

Mr.  Keed  presents  a  lengthy  letter  from  the  Kev. 
Byron  Sunderland,  of  Washington,  dated  Nov.  15, 
1872.  Dr.  Sunderland  in  company  with  a  party  of 
friends  visited  the  President  in  the  autumn  of  1862. 
In  this  letter  he  says : 

"After  some  conversation,  in  which  he  seemed 
disposed  to  have  his  joke  and  fun,  he  settled  down 
to  a  serious  consideration  of  the  subject  before  his 
mind,  and  for  one  half-hour  poured  forth  a  volume 
of  the  deepest  Christian  philosophy  I  ever  heard." 

RE/.  DR.  MINER. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Miner,  who  met  Lincoln  in  "Washing- 
ton, says : 

"  All  that  was  said  during  that  memorable  after- 
noon I  spent  alone  with  that  great  and  good  man  is 


30  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  : 

engraven  too  deeply  on  my  memory  ever  to  be 
effaced.  I  felt  certain  of  this  fact,  that  if  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was  not  really  an  experimental  Christian,  he 
was  acting  like  one.  He  was  doing  his  duty  man- 
fully, and  looking  to  God  for  help  in  time  of  need ; 
and,  like  the  immortal  Washington,  he  believed  in 
the  efficacy  of  prayer,  and  it  was  his  custom  to  read 
the  Scriptures  and  pray  himself." 

BEV.  P.  D.  GURLEY.  D.D, 

While  in  Washington,  Lincoln  with  his  family 
attended  the  Presbyterian  church  of  which  the  Kev. 
Dr.  Gurley  was  pastor.  Mr.  Reed  cites  the  follow- 
ing as  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Gurley  in  regard  to  the 
alleged  Infidelity  of  Lincoln  : 

"  I  do  not  believe  a  word  of  it.  It  could  not  have 
been  true  of  him  while  here,  for  I  have  had  frequent 
and  intimate  conversations  with  him  on  the  subject 
of  the  Bible  and  the  Christian  religion,  when  he 
could  have  had  no  motive  to  deceive  me,  and  I  con- 
sidered him  sound  not  only  on  the  truth  of  the 
Christian  religion  but  on  all  its  fundamental  doctrines 
and  teachings.  And  more  than  that,  in  the  latter 
days  of  his  chastened  and  weary  life,  after  the  death 
of  his  son  Willie,  and  his  visit  to  the  battlefield  of 
Gettysburg,  he  said,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  that  he 
had  lost  confidence  in  everything  but  God,  and  that 
he  now  believed  his  heart  was  changed,  and  that  he 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  31 

loved  the  Savior,  and,  if  he  was  not  deceived  in  him- 
self, it  was  his  intention  soon  to  make  a  profession 
of  religion." 

HON.  ISAAC  N.  ARNOLD, 

One  of  the  most  ardent  friends  and  admirers  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  for  several 
years  a  member  of  Congress  from  Illinois.  Mr. 
Arnold  wrote  a  work  on  *'  Lincoln  and  Slavery,"  and 
a  "  Life  of  Lincoln  "  which  was  published  in  1885. 
Lincoln's  religious  views  are  thus  described  by  Mr. 
Arnold : 

"  No  more  reverent  Christian  than  he  ever  sat  in 
the  Executive  chair,  not  excepting  "Washington.  He 
was  by  nature  religious  ;  full  of  religious  sentiment. 
The  veil  between  him  and  the  supernatural  was  very 
thin.  It  is  not  claimed  that  he  was  orthodox.  For 
creeds  and  dogmas  he  cared  little.  But  in  the  great 
fundamental  principles  of  religion,  of  the  Christian 
religion,  he  was  a  firm  believer.  Belief  in  the  exist- 
ence of  God,  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  in  the 
Bible  as  the  revelation  of  God  to  man,  in  the  efficacy 
and  duty  of  prayer,  in  reverence  toward  the  Almighty, 
and  in  love  and  charity  to  man,  was  the  basis  of  his 
religion  "  (Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  446). 

"His  reply  to  the  Negroes  of  Baltimore  when 
they,  in  1864,  presented  him  with  a  magnificent 
Bible,  ought  to  silence  forever  those  who  charge  him 


32  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

with  unbelief.  He  said :  '  In  regard  to  tlie  Great 
Book  I  have  only  to  say  that  it  is  the  best  gift  which 
God  has  given  to  man.  All  the  good  from  the  Savior 
of  the  world  is  communicated  through  this  book  '  " 
(Ibid.,  p.  447). 

"  His  faith  in  a  Divine  Providence  began  at  his 
mother's  knee,  and  ran  through  all  the  changes  of 
his  life.  Not  orthodox,  not  a  man  of  creeds,  he  was 
a  man  of  simple  trust  in  God  "  (lb.,  p,  448). 

F.  B.  CARPENTER. 

Mr.  Carpenter,  the  artist,  in  his  popular  book, 
entitled  "  Six  Months  in  the  White  House  with 
Abraham  Lincoln,"  uses  the  following  language : 

"  I  would  scarcely  have  called  Mr.  Lincoln  a  re- 
ligious man — and  yet  I  believe  him  to  have  been  a 
sincere  Christian  "  (Six  Months  in  the  White  House, 
p.  185). 

ISAAC  HAW  LEY. 

In  the  spring  of  1887,  in  going  from  Springfield 
to  Havana,  I  met  Isaac  Hawley,  one  of  the  early 
settlers  of  Illinois,  and  who  for  nearly  twenty  years 
resided  within  a  few  blocks  of  Lincoln  in  Springfield. 
In  answer  to  the  question,  "  Was  Lincoln  a  Chris- 
tian?" Mr.  Hawley  replied  : 

'*  I  believe  that  Lincoln  was  a  Christian,  and  that 
he  was  God's  chosen  instrument  to  perform  the 
mighty  work  he  did." 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  33 

REV.  MR.  WILLETS. 

The  Kev.  Mr.  Willets,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  T.,  is  cred- 
ited with  the  following  statement  concerning  Lin- 
coln's reputed  conversion.  The  information  it  con- 
tains was  obtained,  it  is  said,  from  a  lady  of  Mr. 
Willets's  acquaintance  who  met  Lincoln  in  Washing- 
ton: 

"  The  President,  it  seemed,  had  been  much  im- 
pressed with  the  devotion  and  earnestness  of  pur- 
pose manifested  by  the  lady,  and  on  one  occasion, 
after  she  had  discharged  the  object  of  her  visit,  he 
said  to  her  :  "  Mrs. ,  I  have  formed  a  high  opin- 
ion of  your  Christian  character,  and  now,  as  we  are 
alone,  I  have  a  mind  to  ask  you  to  give  me,  in  brief, 
your  idea  of  what  constitutes  a  true  religious  expe- 
rience.' The  lady  replied  at  some  length,  stating 
that,  in  her  judgment,  it  consisted  of  a  conviction  of 
one's  own  sinfulness  and  weakness,  and  personal 
need  of  a  Savior  for  strength  and  support;  that 
views  of  mere  doctrine  might  and  would  differ,  but 
when  one  was  really  brought  to  feel  his  need  of 
divine  help,  and  to  seek  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
for  strength  and  guidance,  it  was  satisfactory  evi- 
dence of  his  having  been  born  again.  This  was  the 
substance  of  her  reply.  When  she  had  concluded, 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  very  thoughtful  for  a  few  moments. 
He  at  length  said,  very  earnestly,  *  If  what  you  have 


34  ABRAHAM  LKfOOLN  : 

told  me  is  really  a  correct  view  of  this  great  subject, 
I  think  I  can  say  with  sincerity  that  I  hope  I  am  a 
Christian '  "  (Anecdotes  of  Lincoln,  pp.  166,  167). 

A  PIOUS  NURSE. 

A  pious  lady,  who  served  in  the  capacity  of  a  hos- 
pital nurse  at  Washington,  and  who  sometimes  vis- 
ited the  White  House,  testifies  to  Lincoln's  belief  in 
the  efficacy  of  prayer.  The  incident  narrated  oc- 
curred while  a  battle  was  in  progress.  The  report 
says: 

"  The  possibility  of  defeat  depressed  him  greatly ; 
but  the  lady  told  him  he  must  trust,  and  that  he 
could  at  least  pray.  '  Yes,'  said  he,  and  taking  up  a 
Bible,  he  started  for  his  room.  Could  all  the  peo- 
ple of  the  nation  have  overheard  the  earnest  peti- 
tion that  went  up  from  that  inner  chamber  as  it 
reached  the  ears  of  the  nurse,  they  would  have  fallen 
upon  their  knees  with  tearful  and  reverential  sym- 
pathy "  (Anecdotes  of  Lincoln,  p.  120). 

WESTERN  CHRISTIAN   ADVOCATE. 

Soon  after  the  close  of  the  war,  the  Western  Chris- 
tian Advocate,  the  leading  Christian  journal  of  the 
West,  published  the  following  : 

"  On  the  day  of  the  receipt  of  the  capitulation  of 
Lee,  as  we  learn  from  a  friend  intimate  with  the  late 
President  Lincoln,  the  cabinet  meeting  was  held  an 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  35 

hour  earlier  than  usual.  Neither  the  President  nor 
any  member  was  able,  for  a  time,  to  give  utterance 
to  his  feelings.  At  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Lincoln  all 
dropped  on  their  knees,  and  offered  in  silence  and 
in  tears  their  humble  and  heartfelt  acknowledgment 
to  the  Almighty  for  the  triumph  he  had  granted 
to  the  national  cause." 

The  above  is  quoted  by  Eaymond  and  other  biog- 
raphers of  Lincoln. 

tin  ILLINOIS  CLERGYMAN. 

In  the  "  Lincoln  Memorial  Album "  appears 
what  is  reported  to  be  Lincoln's  "  Reply  to  an 
Illinois  Clergyman :" 

"  When  I  left  Springfield  I  asked  the  people  to 
pray  for  me.  I  was  not  a  Christian.  When  I  buried 
my  son,  the  severest  trial  of  my  life,  I  was  not  a 
Christian.  But  when  I  went  to  Gettysburg,  and  saw 
the  graves  of  thousands  of  our  soldiers,  I  then  and 
there  consecrated  myself  to  Christ.  Yes,  I  do  love 
Jesus"  (L.  M.  A.,  p.  366). 

REV.  JOHN  H.  BARROWS. 

In  the  "  Lincoln  Memorial  Album,"  Dr.  J.  H. 
Barrows  contributes  an  article  on  "  The  Religious 
Aspects  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  Career,"  from  which 
I  quote  as  follows  : 

"  In  the  anxious  uncertainties  of  the  great  war,  he 


36  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN! 

gradually  rose  to  the  bights  where  Jehovah  became 
to  him  the  sublimestof  realities,  the  ruler  of  nations. 
When  he  wrote  his  immortal  Proclamation,  he 
invoked  upon  it  not  only  '  the  considerate  judgment 
of  mankind,'  but  '  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty 
God.'  When  darkness  gathered  over  the  brave 
armies  fighting  for  the  nation's  life,  this  strong  man 
in  the  early  morning  knelt  and  wrestled  in  prayer 
with  him  who  holds  in  his  hand  the  fate  of  empires. 
When  the  clouds  lifted  above  the  carnage  of  Gettys- 
burg, he  gave  his  heart  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
When  he  pronounced  his  matchless  oration  on  the 
chief  battlefield  of  the  war,  he  gave  expression  to 
the  resolve  that  '  this  nation,  under  God,  should 
have  a  new  birth  of  freedom.'  And  when  he  wrote 
his  last  Inaugural  Address,  he  gave  to  it  the  lofty 
religious  tone  of  an  old  Hebrew  psalm  "  (L.  M.  A^ 
p.  508). 

BEV.  FRANCIS   VINTON,  D.D. 

This  clergyman,  a  resident  of  New  York,  and  a 
stranger  to  Lincoln,  visited  the  White  House  in 
1862,  it  is  claimed,  and  indulged  in  an  argument  and 
exhortation,  the  effect  of  which  was  to  convert  the 
President  to  a  belief  in  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul-  Dur- 
ing the  interview,  Lincoln,  it  is  reported,  fell  upon 
the  neck  of  his  clerical  visitor  and  wept  like  a  child. 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  37 

Before  retiring,  Dr.  Yinton  said  :  "  I  liave  a  sermon 
upon  this  subject  which  I  think  might  interest  you." 
"  Mr.  Lincoln,"  the  report  continues,  "  begged  him 
to  send  it  at  an  early  day,  thanking  him  repeatedly 
for  his  cheering  and  hopeful  words.  The  sermon 
was  sent,  and  read  over  and  over  by  the  President, 
who  caused  a  copy  to  be  made  for  his  own  private 
use  before  it  was  returned  "  (Anecdotes  of  Lincoln, 
pp.  107,  108). 

BISHOP  SIMPSON. 

The  most  eminent  Methodist  divine  of  that  period 
was  Bishop  Simpson,  During  the  war  his  com- 
manding influence  and  rare  eloquence  did  much  to 
secure  for  the  Union  cause  the  united  support  of 
Northern  Methodists.  Lincoln  appreciated  the 
services  of  the  distinguished  divine,  and  they 
became  warm  friends.  "When  the  remains  of  the 
President  were  conveyed  to  their  final  resting-place 
at  Springfield,  Bishop  Simpson  was  selected  to 
deliver  the  funeral  oration.  Alluding  to  the  religious 
phase  of  Lincoln's  character,  he  spoke  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  As  a  ruler,  I  doubt  if  any  President  has  ever 
shown  such  trust  in  God,  or  in  public  documents  so 
frequently  referred  to  divine  aid.  Often  did  he 
remark  to  friends  and  to  delegations  that  his  hope 
for  our  success  rested  in  his  conviction  that  God 


38  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  : 

would  bless  our  efforts  because  we  were  trying  to  do 
right "  (Lincoln  and  Slavery,  p.  673). 


^^if""'  <■ 


--?:>■ 


PKESIDENT  LINCOLN'S  EAELY  HOME, 


WAS  HE  A  OHBISTIAN?  89 


CHAPTER  II. 

REVIKW  OP  CHRISTIAN   TESTIMONY — HOLLAND  AND  BATE- 
MAN. 

Character  of  Holland's  "  Life  of  Lincoln  "—The  Bateman  Interview — 
Inconsistency  and  untruthfulness  of  its  statements — Holland's  Subse- 
quent Modification  and  Final  Abandonment  of  his  original  Claims. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  has  been  presented  the 
Christian  side  of  this  question.  It  has  been  pre- 
sented fully  and  fairly.  Even  the  Christian  claimant 
must  admit  that  it  is  the  longest  and  most  complete 
array  of  testimony  that  has  yet  been  published 
in  support  of  his  claim.  This  evidence  is  explicit 
and  apparently  conclusive.  To  attempt  its  refutation 
may  seem  presumptuous.  And  yet,  in  the  face  of  all 
this  evidence,  the  writer  does  not  hesitate  to  declare 
that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  a  Christian,  and 
pledge  himself  to  refute  the  statements  of  these  wit- 
nesses by  a  volume  of  testimony  that  is  irresistible 
and  overwhelming. 

Before  introducing  this  testimony  the  evidence 
already  adduced  will  be  reviewed.  This  evidence 
may  properly  be  grouped  into  three  divisions :  1. 
The  testimony  of  Holland   and   Bateman;  2.  The 


40  ABE  AH  AM  LINCOLN  : 

testimony  of  Keed  and  his  witnesses ;  3.  The  tes- 
timony of  Arnold  and  the  miscellaneous  evidence 
remaining. 

Holland's  "Life  of  Lincoln,"  from  a  literary  point 
of  view,  is  a  work  of  more  than  ordinary  merit.  It 
possesses  a  beauty  of  diction  and  an  intellectual 
vigor  seldom  surpassed ;  but  as  an  authority  it  is 
unreliable.  Like  Weems's  "  Life  of  Washington,"  it 
is  fcimply  a  biographical  romance  founded  upon  fact, 
but  paying  little  regard  to  facts  in  presenting  the 
details.  Following  the  natural  bent  of  Christian 
biographers,  Holland  parades  the  subject  of  his 
work  as  a  model  of  Christian  piety.  He  knew  that 
this  was  false  ;  for,  while  he  was  unacquainted  with 
Lincoln,  he  had  been  apprised  of  his  unbelief — had 
been  repeatedly  told  of  it  before  he  wrote  his 
biography.  But  this  did  not  deter  him  from  assert- 
ing the  contrary.  He  knew  that  if  he  stated  the 
facts  the  clergy  would  condemn  his  book.  They 
needed  the  influence  of  Lincoln's  great  name  to 
support  their  crumbling  creed,  and  would  have  it  at 
any  sacrifice,  particularly  when  its  possession  re- 
quired no  greater  sacrifice  than  truth.  Holland  was 
equal  to  the  emergency.  "When  one  of  Lincoln's 
friends  in  Springfield  suggested  that  the  less  said 
about  his  religious  views  the  better,  he  promptly 
replied  :  "  Oh,  never  mind  ;  I'll  fix  that."  And  he 
did.     With  dramatic  embellishments,  he  presented 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  41 

to  the  delight  of  the  orthodox  world  the  now  famous, 
or  rather  infamous,  Bateman  interview. 

The  publication  of  this  story  produced  a  profound 
sensation  among  the  personal  friends  of  the  dead 
President.  It  revealed  to  them  the  unpleasant  fact, 
assuming  Holland's  account  to  be  correct,  either  that 
Newton  Bateman,  who  had  hitherto  borne  the  repu- 
tation of  being  a  man  of  veracity,  was  an  unscrupu- 
lous liar,  or  that  Abraham  Lincoln,  whose  reputation 
for  honesty  and  candor,  long  anterior  to  1860,  had 
become  proverbial,  was  a  consummate  hypocrite  ; 
and  loath  as  they  were  to  believe  the  former,  they 
rejected  with  disdain  the  latter. 

Referring  to  this  story,  Lamon,  in  his  "Life  of 
Lincoln,"  says  : 

"  There  is  no  dealing  with  Mr.  Bateman  except  by 
a  flat  contradiction.  Perhaps  his  memory  was 
treacherous  or  his  imagination  led  him  astray,  or, 
peradventure,  he  thought  a  fraud  no  harm  if  it 
gratified  the  strong  desire  of  the  public  for  proofs  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  orthodoxy  "  (Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  501). 

While  Bateman  undoubtedly  misrepresented  Lin- 
coln in  his  account  of  their  conversation — for  it  is 
not  denied  that  he  had  an  interview  with  Lincoln — 
it  is  quite  probable  that  he  did  not  to  the  extent 
represented  by  Holland.  Bateman  doubtless  exag- 
gerated the  affair,  and  Holland  magnified  Bate- 
man's  report  of  it.     In  an  article  originally  published 


42  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

in  the  Index,  and  subsequently  quoted  by  Lamon, 
Lincoln's  law  partner,  Mr.  Herndon,  says  : 

"  I  doubt  whether  Mr.  Bateman  said  in  full  what 
is  recorded  there.  I  doubt  a  great  deal  of  it.  I 
know  the  whole  story  is  untrue — untrue  in  sub- 
stance, untrue  in  fact  and  spirit.  As  soon  as  the 
[Holland's]  '  Life  of  Lincoln '  was  out,  on  reading 
that  part  here  referred  to,  I  instantly  sought  Mr. 
Bateman  and  found  him  in  his  office.  I  spoke  to 
him  politely  and  kindly,  and  he  spoke  to  me  in  the 
same  manner.  I  said  substantially  to  him  that  Mr. 
Holland,  in  order  to  make  Mr.  Lincoln  a  technical 
Christian,  made  him  a  h^'pocrite  ;  and  so  his  'Life  of 
Lincoln '  quite  plainly  says.  I  loved  Mr.  Lincoln, 
and  was  mortified,  if  not  angry,  to  see  him  made  a 
hypocrite.  I  cannot  now  detail  what  Mr.  Bateman  said, 
as  it  was  a  private  conversation,  and  I  am  forbidden 
to  make  use  of  it  in  public.  If  some  good  gentleman 
can  only  get  the  seal  of  secrecy  removed  I  can  show 
what  was  said  and  done.  On  my  word,  the  world 
may  take  it  for  granted  that  Holland  is  wrong — that 
he  does  not  state  Mr.  Lincoln's  views  correctly" 
(Lamon's  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  496). 

In  a  lecture  on  "  Lincoln's  Religion,"  delivered  in 
Springfield  in  1874,  alluding  to  the  same  subject, 
Mr.  Herndon  says : 

"  My  notes  of  our  conversation  bear  date  Decem- 
ber 3,  12,  and  28,  1865.     Our  conversations   were 


WAS   HE   A  CHRISTIAN?  43 

private,  I  suppose.  However,  I  can  say  this  much  : 
that  Mr.  Bateman  expressly  told  me  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was,  in  the  conversation  related  in  Hol- 
land, talking  politics  and  not  religion,  nor  Christian- 
ity, nor  morals,  as  such.  I  have  persistently  dogged 
Mr.  Bateman  for  the  privilege  of  publishing  my 
notes,  or  to  give  me  a  letter  explaining  what  Mr. 
Lincoln  did  say,  so  that  I  might  make  known  the 
facts  of  the  case.  Mr.  Bateman  has  as  stoutly 
refused." 

Dr.  Bateman  finally  permitted  Mr.  Herndon  to 
make  public  a  letter,  marked  "  confidential,"  which 
he  had  written  Mr.  Herndon  in  1867.  In  this  letter 
Bateman  says : 

"  He  [Lincoln]  was  applying  the  principles  of 
moral  and  religious  truth  to  the  duties  of  the  hour, 
the  condition  of  the  country,  and  the  conduct  of 
public  men — ministers  of  the  gospel.  I  had  no 
thought  of  orthodoxy  or  heterodoxy,  Unitarianism, 
Trinitarianism,  or  any  other  ism,  during  the  whole 
conversation,  and  I  don't  suppose  or  believe  he  had." 

Had  Lincoln  made  the  confession  he  is  reported 
to  have  made,  this  would  have  suggested  to  Mr. 
Bateman  the  idea  of  his  admitted  orthodoxy  as  well 
as  his  reputed  heterodoxy.  Had  Lincoln  declared 
that  "  Christ  is  God,"  this  would  have  suggested  to 
him  the  idea  of  Trinitarianism.  It  will  be  seen,  even 
from  this  letter,  that  instead  of  talking  theology  and 


44  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

professing  a  belief  in  Christianity,  lie  was  talking 
politics  and  denouncing  the  intolerance  and  bigotry 
of  Christian  ministers. 

Dr.  Bateman  privately  asserts  that  he  was  not  cor- 
rectly reported,  that  Holland's  version  of  the  inter- 
view "is  colored."  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  he 
had  not  the  courage  to  state  this  fact  to  the  public, 
and  his  plea,  "My  aversion  to  publicity  in  such 
matters  is  intense,"  is  a  poor  apology  for  refusing  to 
do  so. 

As  previously  intimated,  this  story  is  probably 
founded  on  fact  and  has  an  element  of  truth  in  it. 
Lincoln  and  Bateman  had  a  political  interview,  and 
the  object  of  this  interview  was  the  examination  and 
discussion  of  tlie  list  of  Springfield  voters.  This  list 
revealed  the  fact  that  twenty  out  of  twenty-three 
clergymen  and  a  very  large  majority  of  the  church- 
members  of  Springfield  were  opposed  to  Lincoln. 
The  significance  of  this  fact  Dr.  Holland  and  Dr. 
Bateman  have  apparently  overlooked.  Why  was  the 
church  opposed  to  him  ?  It  must  have  been  either 
because  it  was  opposed  to  the  Kepublican  party,  or 
because  he  was  personally  objectionable  to  the  mem- 
bers of  that  party.  His  political  principles  were  the 
principles  of  his  party,  his  ability  was  conceded,  and 
his  moral  character  was  above  reproach.  It  is  fair 
to  assume  that  the  political  sentiment  of  the  Chris- 
tians of  Springfield  was  substantially  the  political 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  45 

sentiment  of  Northern  Christians  generally.  Now, 
was  the  Northern  Church  overwhelmingly  in  favor 
of  the  extension  of  slavery  ?  Were  eighty-seven  per 
cent,  of  Northern  Christians  Democrats  ?  Or  did  the 
Christians  of  Springfield  oppose  Lincoln  because  he 
was  an  lufidel? 

Holland  makes  Bateman  affirm  that  Lincoln  "  drew 
from  his  bosom  a  pocket  New  Testament"  It  is 
generally  believed  by  Lincoln's  friends  that  he  did 
not  have  a  New  Testament,  that  the  only  book  used 
in  the  interview  was  the  book  containing  the  list  of 
Springfield  voters.  One  of  them  says  :  "  The  idea 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  carried  the  New  Testament  or 
Bible  in  his  bosom  or  boots,  to  draw  on  his  opponents 
in  debate,  is  ridiculous."  It  is  possible,  however, 
that  there  was  a  New  Testament  in  the  room,  and 
that  Lincoln  used  it  to  enforce  an  argument.  Indeed, 
there  is  internal  evidence  in  the  story,  aside  from  the 
declaration  of  Bateman,  that  such  was  the  case.  The 
central  idea  in  his  political  creed — the  keynote  of 
his  campaigns,  both  in  1858  and  in  1860 — was  con- 
tained in  that  memorable  passage,  " '  A  house  divided 
against  itself  cannot  stand.'  This  government  can 
not  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free." 
The  figure  quoted  was  a  familiar  and  powerful  one, 
and  Lincoln  recognized  its  force  in  dealing  with  the 
masses.  It  was  taken  from  the  New  Testament,  and 
from  the  words  of  Christ  himself.     That  he  should 


46  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

use  it  against  those  Christians  who  were  acting  con- 
trary to  this  well-known  truth,  is  not  strange.  Im- 
mediately after  the  declaration,  "Christ  is  God,"  he 
is  reported  as  saying  :  "  I  have  told  them  that  a  house 
divided  against  itself  cannot  stand,  and  Christ  and 
reason  say  the  same."  This  furnishes  a  solution  to 
the  whole  story.  This  shows  what  he  was  doing 
with  a  New  Testament.  In  connection  with  this, 
nothing  is  more  natural  than  that  he  should  exclaim  : 
"  Christ  teaches  it,  and  Christ  is  [their]  God  !  "  That 
he  was  terribly  in  earnest,  that  he  was  deeply  agi- 
tated and  pained  to  learn  that  his  Christian  neigh- 
bors were  opposed  to  him,  is  not  improbable.  Thus 
the  incidents  of  a  simple  political  interview  that 
were  natural  and  reasonable  have  been  perverted  to 
make  it  appear  that  he  was  a  Christian.  A  mere 
reference  to  the  New  Testament  and  Christ  have 
been  twisted  into  an  acknowledgment  of  their  divin- 
ity. Batemau  himself  admits  that  Lincoln  said  :  "  I 
am  not  a  Christian."  Why  not  accept  his  statement, 
then  ?  Why  then  distort  his  words  and  in  the  face 
of  this  positive  declaration  attempt  to  prove  that  he 
was  a  Christian  ?  Bateman  reports  him  as  modify- 
ing the  statement  by  adding  :  "  God  knows  I  would 
be  one."  Yes,  "  God  knows  I  would  be  one  were  I 
convinced  that  Christianity  is  true,  but  not  convinced 
of  its  truth,  I  am  an  unbeliever." 
Lincoln  is  also  reported  to  have  said  that  in  the 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  47 

light  of  tlie  New  Testament  "  human  bondage  can 
not  live  a  moment."  But  he  did  not  utter  these 
words.  He  did  not  utter  them  because  they  are  un- 
true, and  none  knew  tliis  better  than  himself.  He 
knew  that  in  the  light  of  this  book  human  bondage 
had  lived  for  nearly  two  thousand  years ;  he  knew 
that  this  book  was  one  of  the  great  bulwarks  of  hu- 
man slavery  ;  he  knew  that  there  was  not  to  be  found 
between  its  lids  a  single  text  condemning  slavery, 
while  there  were  to  be  found  a  score  of  texts  sus- 
taining it ;  he  knew  that  that  infamous  law,  the 
Fugitive  Slave  law,  received  its  warrant  from  this 
book — that  Paul,  in  the  light  of  its  earliest  teach- 
ings, had  returned  a  fugitive  slave  to  his  master. 

In  this  story  Lincoln  is  charged  with  the  grossest 
hypocrisy.  He  is  declared  to  have  professed  a  be- 
lief in  Christ  and  Christianity,  and  when  Bateman 
observed  that  his  friends  were  ignorant  of  this,  he  is 
made  to  reply  :  "  I  know  they  are.  I  am  obliged  to 
appear  different  to  them."  Now,  to  use  Lincoln's 
own  words,  "  A  sane  person  can  no  more  act  with- 
out a  motive  than  can  there  be  an  effect  without  a 
cause,"  and  what  possible  motive  could  he  have  had 
for  such  conduct?  Supposing  that  he  was  base 
enough  to  be  a  hypocrite,  what  could  induce  him  to 
lead  the  world  to  suppose  he  was  an  Infidel  if  he 
were  not?  In  the  eyes  of  the  more  ignorant  and 
bigoted   class   of   Christians,  Infidelity   is   a   more 


48  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

heinous  crime  than  murder,  and  an  Infidel  is  a 
creature  scarcely  to  be  tolerated,  much  less  to  be 
intrusted  with  a  public  ofl&ce.  Freethinkers  gen- 
erally detest  the  dogmas  of  Christianity  as 
thoroughly  as  Christians  possibly  can  the  principles 
of  Freethought.  But  free  thought  and  free  speech 
are  the  leading  tenets  of  their  creed.  They  recog- 
nize the  fact  that  we  are  all  the  children  of  circum- 
stances, that  our  belief  is  determined  by  our  en- 
vironments, and  while  they  reject  Christianity,  they 
have  nothing  but  charity  for  those  who  consci- 
entiously profess  it.  They  may  repudiate  a  bigot, 
but  will  not  oppose  a  man  merely  because  he  is  a 
Christian.  If  Lincoln  were  an  Infidel,  discretion 
might  urge  a  concealment  of  his  views ;  if  he  were  a 
Christian,  policy  would  prompt  him  to  give  it  as 
wide  a  publicity  as  possible,  especially  when  he 
rested  under  the  imputation  of  being  a  disbeliever. 
Had  he  changed  his  belief  and  become  a  convert  to 
Christianity,  a  knowledge  of  the  fact  would  not  have 
lost  him  the  support  of  his  friends,  even  though 
some  of  them  were  Freethinkers ;  while  it  would 
have  secured  for  him  a  more  cordial  support  from 
the  Kepublican  side  of  the  church,  many  of  whom 
had  been  alienated  on  account  of  his  supposed  anti- 
Christian  sentiments.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that 
Lincoln  was  a  hypocrite;  but  this  story,  if  true, 
makes  him  not  only  a  hypocrite  but  a  fool.    If  he 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  49 

believed  in  Christianity  there  can  be  but  one  reason 
advanced  for  his  desiring  to  keep  it  a  secret — he  was 
ashamed  of  it. 

Holland,  in  trying  to  explain  away  the  inconsist- 
encies of  this  fabrication,  repeatedly  blunders.  In 
one  of  his  attempts  he  makes  use  of  the  following 
remarkable  language  : 

"  It  was  one  of  the  peculiarities  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to 
hide  these  religious  experiences  from  the  eyes  of 
the  world.  .  .  .  They  [his  friends]  did  not  re- 
gard him  as  a  religious  man.  They  had  never  seen 
anything  but  the  active  lawyer,  the  keen  politician, 
the  jovial,  fun-loving  companion  in  Mr.  Lincoln. 
All  this  department  of  his  life  he  had  kept  carefully 
hidden  from  them.  Why  he  should  say  that  he  was 
obliged  to  appear  differently  to  others  does  not  ap- 
pear ;  but  the  fact  is  a  matter  of  history  that  he 
never  exposed  his  own  religious  life  to  those  who 
had  no  sympathy  with  it.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
the  clergymen  of  Springfield  knew  anything  of  these 
experiences"  (Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  239,  240). 

What  1  had  the  clergymen  of  Springfield  no  sym- 
pathy with  a  religious  life  ?  A  person  can  utter  one 
falsehood  with  some  degree  of  plausibility ;  but 
when  he  attempts  to  verify  it  by  uttering  another,  he 
usually  trips  and  falls.  The  above  passage  is  mere 
hypocritical  cant.  It  carries  with  it  not  only  its  own 
refutation,  but  that  of  the  rest  of  Holland's  testi- 


50  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

mony  also.  It  is  the  language  of  the  man  who  is 
conscious  of  having  stated  a  falsehood ;  conscious 
that  there  are  others  who  believe  it  to  be  a  false- 
hood. He  knew  that  the  personal  friends  of  Lin- 
coln all  understood  him  to  be  a  disbeliever.  He 
knew  that  the  church-members  of  Springfield  all 
entertained  the  same  opinion.  He  virtually  says  to 
these  people  :  "  It  is  true  that  Lincoln  professed  to 
be  an  Infidel,  but  he  was  not ;  he  was  a  Christian. 
The  fact  has  been  kept  a  profound  secret.  Bateman 
and  I  have  been  the  sole  custodians  of  this  secret, 
and  we  now  give  it  to  the  world." 

A  Christian  writer,  apologizing  for  the  absurd  and 
contradictory  statements  of  Holland  and  Bateman, 
says,  "  They  aimed  at  the  truth."  I  do  not  believe 
it.  It  is  clearly  evident  that  they  aimed  at  a  plau- 
sible lie.    But  in  either  case  they  made  a  bad  shot. 

In  his  "  Life  of  Lincoln,"  Holland  endeavors  to 
-convey  the  impression  that  Lincoln  was  always  a 
devout  Christian.  He  declares  that  even  during  the 
years  of  his  early  manhood  at  New  Salem,  "  he  was 
a  religious  man;"  that  "he  had  a  deep  religious 
life."  When  Herndon  and  Lamon  exposed  his 
shameful  misrepresentations  he  retreated  from  his 
first  position,  and  in  Scribner's  Monthly  wrote  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  What  Abraham  Lincoln  was  when  he  lived  at 
New  Salem  and  wrote  an  anti-Christian  tract  (which 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  61 

the  friend  to  whom  he  showed  it  somewhat  violently 
but  most  judiciously  put  in  the  fire)  is  one  thing, 
and  it  may  be  necessary  for  an  impartial  historian 
to  record  it.  What  he  was  when  he  died  at  Wash- 
ington with  those  most  Christian  words  of  the  Second 
Inaugural  upon  his  lips,  and  that  most  Christian 
record  of  five  years  of  patient  tenderness  and  charity 
behind  him,  is  quite  another  thing." 

He  admits  that  Lincoln  was  an  Inlidel  in  Illinois, 
but  would  have  us  believe  that  he  was  a  Christian 
in  Washington.  He  refers  to  "  those  most  Christian 
words  of  the  Second  Inaugural,"  and  "that  most 
Christian  record  of  five  years  of  patient  tenderness 
and  charity."  In  the  Second  Inaugural  there  is  not 
a  word  affirming  a  belief  in  Christianity— not  a  word 
in  reference  to  Christianity.  He  mentions  God,  and 
quotes  from  the  Bible,  but  does  not  intimate  that  the 
Bible  is  God's  word.  That  Christians  have  a  mo- 
nopoly of  "patient  tenderness  and  charity,"  can 
hardly  be  accepted.  The  history  of  the  church  does 
not  confirm  this  assumption.  Many  Christians  have 
possessed  these  virtues.  So  have  the  votaries  of 
other  religions.  These  attributes  belong  to  good 
men  everywhere,  but  they  are  the  distinguishing 
features  of  no  particular  creed. 

Smarting  under  his  exposure,  with  that  whining 
cant  so  peculiar  to  the  vanquished  religionist,  Hoi- 


62  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

land  finally  sent  forth  this  parting  wail  and  virtually 
abandoned  the  whole  case  : 

"  The  question  is,  not  whether  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
a  subscriber  to  the  creeds  of  orthodoxy,  but  whether 
he  was  a  believing — that  is  to  say,  a  truthful  Chris- 
tian man ;  not  whether  he  was  accustomed  to  call 
Jesus  Christ  '  Lord,  Lord,'  but  whether  he  was  used 
to  do  those  things  which  Jesus  Christ  exemplified 
and  enforced.  He  was  accustomed,  as  we  know  well 
enough,  to  speak  of  an  Almighty  Father,  of  whom 
justice  and  mercy  and  sympathy  with  weak  and  suf- 
fering humanity  were  characteristic  attributes.  Who 
was  it  that  revealed  to  man  a  God  like  this  ?  Who 
was  it  that  once  *  showed  us  the  Father  and  it  suf- 
ficed us  ?  '  Whoever  it  was  that  made  this  revela- 
tion to  mankind  it  was  of  him  that  this  man,  even 
though  he  knew  it  not,  had  learned,  and  it  was  in 
his  spirit  that  he  acted  "  (Scribner's  Monthly). 

The  concluding  words  of  Dr.  Holland's  testimony, 
as  quoted  from  his  "  Life  of  Lincoln,"  are  as  follows  : 

"  Moderate,  frank,  truthful,  gentle,  forgiving,  lov- 
ing, just,  Mr.  Lincoln  will  always  be  remembered  as 
eminently  a  Christian  President ;  and  the  almost 
immeasurably  great  results  which  he  had  the  privi- 
lege of  achieving  were  due  to  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
Christian  President." 

This  prediction  and  this  assumption  are  false.  1 
change  one  word  and  make  them  grandly  true. 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  63 

"Moderate,  frauk,  truthful,  gentle,  forgiving, 
loving,  just,  Mr.  Lincoln  will  always  be  remembered 
as  eminently  a  Liberal  President ;  and  the  almost 
immeasurably  great  results  which  he  had  the  privi- 
lege of  achieving  were  due  to  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
Liberal  President. 


54  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 


CHAPTER    in 

31EVIEW  OP  OHBISTLAJI    TESTIMONY — REED  AND   HIS  WIT- 
NESSES. 

Reed — Smith — Edwards — Lewis— B'-ooks — Statements  of  Edwards, 
Smith,  and  Brooks  Compared— Sunderland — Miner — Gurley — Failure  of 
Reed  to  Eaublish  his  Claims. 

Of  the  twenty  Christian  witnesses  whose  testimony 
is  given  in  Chapter  I.,  ten  admit  that,  during  a  part 
of  his  life,  Lincoln  was  an  unbeliever,  or  Infidel.  Of 
the  remaining  ten,  not  one  denies  the  fact.  It  is 
conceded,  then,  that  he  was  once  an  Infidel.  Now, 
it  is  a  rule  of  law  that  when  a  certain  state  or  condi- 
tion of  things  is  once  proven  to  exist,  that  state  or 
condition  is  presumed  to  continue  to  exist  until  the 
contrary  is  proven.  If  Lincoln  was,  at  one  time,  an 
Infidel,  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  he  remained  an  In- 
fidel, unless  it  can  be  shown  that  he  changed  his  be- 
lief and  became  a  Christian.  This  Dr.  Reed  at- 
tempts to  do. 

His  lecture,  under  the  caption  of  "  The  Later  Life 
and  Religious  Sentiments  of  Abraham  Lincoln,"  will 
be  found  in  Scribners  Monthly  for  July,  1873.  The 
evidence  presented  by  Lamon  had  placed  Dr.  Hoi- 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  55 

land  in  a  most  unenviable  light.  As  Reed's  lecture 
reaffirmed  the  claim  made  by  Holland,  and  brought 
forward  fresh  evidence  to  substantiate  the  claim,  it 
was  naturally  regarded  by  many  Christians  as  a  vin- 
dication of  Holland's  position,  especially  by  those 
who  had  not  read  Lamon's  work.  Holland  was  par- 
ticularly pleased  at  its  opportune  appearance,  and 
cheerfully  gave  it  a  place  in  his  magazine. 

Reed's  individual  testimony  proves  nothing.  He 
does  not  profess  to  know,  from  personal  knowledge, 
what  Lincoln's  religious  views  were.  The  object  of 
his  lecture  was  to  invalidate,  if  possible,  the  testi- 
mony of  those  who  affirmed  that  he  died  an  Infidel, 
and  to  present,  in  addition  to  what  had  already  been 
presented  by  Holland,  the  testimony  of  those  who 
affirmed  that  during  the  last  years  of  his  life  he  was 
a  Christian.  To  answer  his  witnesses  is  to  answer 
his  lecture. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Smith  affirms  that  he  converted  Lin- 
coln to  a  belief  in  "  the  divine  autliority  and  inspira- 
tion of  the  Scjnptures."  It  was  imperative  that  he 
should,  for,  said  he,  "  It  was  my  honor  to  place  be- 
fore Mr.  Lincoln  arguments  designed  to  prove  the 
divine  authority  and  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.'' 
As  a  matter  of  course,  "the  result  was  the  announce- 
ment by  himself  that  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the 
divine  authority  and  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures 
were  unanswerable."     Consequently,  '*  Mr.  Lincoln 


66  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

did  avow  his  belief  in  the  divine  authority  and  inspira' 
Hon  of  the  Scriptures.** 

Impressed  with  a  deep  sense  of  the  gravity  and 
importance  of  his  work,  he  declares  that  "  It  is  a 
matter  of  the  last  importance  not  only  to  the  present 
but  to  all  future  generations  of  the  great  Eepublic, 
and  to  all  advocates  of  civil  and  religious  liberty 
throughout  the  world  that  this  avowal  on  his  part, 
.  .  .  should  be  made  known  to  the  public," 
coupled  with  the  more  important  fact,  of  course, 
that  it  was  Dr.  Smith  who  did  it.  It  is  to  be  re- 
gretted that  his  waiting  until  after  Lincoln's  death 
to  announce  it,  prevented  the  convert's  Christian 
friends  from  tendering  their  congratulations  and  ex- 
tending the  hand  of  fellowship.  It  is  possible  that 
he  counseled  Dr.  Smith  not  to  divulge  the  secret  for 
fear  it  might  injure  his  political  prospects.  Certain 
it  is,  his  neighbors  were  ignorant  of  this  remarkable 
change.  When  Holland  canvassed  Springfield,  in 
1865,  eager  to  obtain  a  morsel  of  evidence  upon 
which  to  base  his  claim  that  Lincoln  was  a  Christian, 
he  failed  to  catch  even  the  faintest  whisper  regard- 
ing this  alleged  conversion. 

When  Dr.  Smith's  letter  was  made  public,  the 
Christians  of  Springfield  generally  smiled,  but  said 
nothing,  while  unbelievers  laughed  outright  and 
pronounced  it  the  acme  of  absurdity.  Dr.  Reed  read 
it  to  his  audience  and  tried  to  look  serious. 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  67 

Concerning  this  claim,  Lincoln's  biographer,  Colo- 
nel Lamou,  says : 

"  The  abilities  of  this  gentleman  to  discuss  such  a 
topic  to  the  edification  of  a  man  like  Mr.  Lincoln 
seem  to  have  been  rather  slender ;  but  the  chance  of 
converting  so  distinguished  a  person  inspired  him 
with  a  zeal  which  he  might  not  have  felt  for  the 
salvation  of  an  obscurer  soul.  Mr.  Lincoln  listened 
to  his  exhortations  in  silence,  apparently  respectful, 
and  occasionally  sat  out  his  sermons  in  church  with 
as  much  patience  as  other  people.  Finding  these 
oral  appeals  unavailing,  Mr.  Smith  composed  a 
heavy  tract  out  of  his  own  head  to  suit  the  particular 
case.  'The  preparation  of  that  work,'  says  he, 
*  cost  me  long  and  arduous  labor ;'  but  it  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  read.  Mr.  Lincoln  took  the 
'  work '  to  his  office,  laid  it  down  without  writing  his 
name  on  it,  and  never  took  it  up  again  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  a  man  who  inhabited  the  office  with  him, 
and  who  saw  it  lying  on  the  same  spot  every  day  for 
months.  Subsequently  Mr.  Smith  drew  from  Mr. 
Lincoln  an  acknowledgment  that  his  argument  was 
unanswerable — not  a  very  high  compliment  under 
the  circumstances  "  (Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  498). 

The  gentleman  whom  Colonel  Lamon  refers  to  as 
testifying  that  Lincoln  did  not  read  Dr.  Smith's  book 
was  Lincoln's  partner,  Mr.  Herndon.  In  his  lecture 
on  "  Lincoln's  Religion,"  Mr.  Herndon  says  : 


58  ABBAHAM  LINCOLN: 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  received  a  book  from  Dr.  Smith  on 
Infidelity.  He  placed  it  on  our  law  table.  He 
never  opened  it — never  read  it  to  my  knowledge." 

If  Dr.  Smith  had  converted  Lincoln,  as  claimed, 
is  it  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  he  would  have 
joined  Dr.  Smith's  church  ?  Had  he  been  converted 
would  the  clergymen  of  Springfield  have  denounced 
him  as  an  Infidel  in  1860?  Again,  if  Dr.  Smith's 
book  was  so  effective  as  to  convert  from  Infidelity  to 
Christianity  as  great  a  mind  as  Lincoln,  why  have 
we  not  heard  more  of  it  ?  Why  has  it  not  been  used 
to  convert  other  Infidels  ?  Was  its  vitality  as  an 
evangelizer  exhausted  in  converting  Lincoln  ? 

Mr.  Eeed  was  a  trifle  more  successful  than  Dr. 
Holland  in  obtaining  witnesses  ;  for  while  Holland 
was  able  to  secure  but  one  witness  in  Illinois,  Reed 
was  able  to  summon  two — Ninian  Edwards  and 
Thomas  Lewis. 

The  testimony  of  Mr.  Edwards,  providing  that  he 
was  the  author  of  the  letter  accredited  to  him,  can 
only  be  accounted  for  on  the  following  supposition. 
Being  a  believer  in  Christianity  himself,  he  consid- 
ered Lincoln's  Infidelity  a  grave  defect  in  his  char- 
acter, and  was  vexed  to  see  that  this  controversy  had 
given  it  such  wide  publicity.  To  assist  in  removing 
this  stain,  as  he  regarded  it,  from  his  kinsman's 
name,  he  allowed  to  be  published  over  his  signature 
a   statement  which,  unless   his  memory  was   very 


WAS  HE   A  CHRISTIAN?  69 

treachorons,   he    must    hare    known    was    Tiiitriie. 

It  may  be  that  Lincoln  did  change  his  views  in 
regard  to  some  historical  or  doctrinal  point  con- 
nected with  Christianity,  and  informed  Mr.  Edwards 
and  other  friends  at  the  time  of  the  fact.  He  might 
have  changed  his  opinions  on  a  hundred  theological 
questions  without  having  in  the  least  changed  his 
views  in  relation  to  the  main  or  fundamental 
doctrines  of  Christianity.  An  admission  concern- 
ing some  trivial  question  connected  with  Christian- 
ity has  been  tortured  to  convey  the  idea  that  he 
accepted  the  whole  system. 

A  prominent  and  respected  citizen  of  Springfield, 
a  gentleman  whose  name  has,  as  yet,  not  been  men- 
tioned in  connection  v/ith  this  controversy,  had  a 
conversation  with  Mr.  Edwards  relative  to  this  sub- 
ject, soon  after  Eeed's  lecture  was  published,  and, 
as  the  result  of  that  conversation,  he  writes  as  fol- 
lows :  "  Mr.  Edwards  was  not  as  good  a  witness  on 
oral  examination  as  he  was  in  print." 

The  letter  of  Mr.  Edwards  is  dated  Dec.  24,  1872. 
On  Jan.  6,  1873,  the  letter  of  Thomas  Lewis  was 
written.  After  two  weeks  of  arduous  labor,  Keed, 
it  seems,  succeeded  in  finding  one  witness  in  Spring- 
field who  was  prepared  to  corroborate  the  testimony 
of  Edwards — Thomas  Lewis. 

In  a  lecture  on  Lincoln   which  appeared  in  the 


60  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

State  Register,  of  Springfield,  Mr.  Herndon  disposed 
of  this  witness  as  follows  : 

"  Mr.  Lewis's  veracity  and  integrity  in  this  com- 
munity need  no  comment.  'I  have  heard  good  men 
say  they  -would  not  believe  his  word  under  any  cir- 
cumstances, especially  if  he  were  interested.  I  hate 
to  state  this  of  Tom,  but  if  he  will  obtrude  himself 
in  this  discussion,  I  cannot  help  but  say  a  word  in 
self-defense.  Mr.  Lincoln  detested  this  man,  I  know. 
The  idea  that  Mr.  Lincoln  would  go  to  Tom  Lewis 
and  reveal  to  him  his  religious  convictions,  is  to  me, 
and  to  all  who  know  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Tom  Lewis,  too 
absurd." 

The  introduction  of  this  Lewis  as  a  witness  dem- 
onstrates the  paucity  of  evidence  to  be  obtained  on 
this  side  of  the  question  among  Lincoln's  neighbors. 
Heed,  living  in  a  city  of  twenty  thousand  inhabitants, 
many  of  them  the  personal  friends  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, after  a  vigorous  search  for  evidence,  is  able 
only  to  present  this  pitiable  apology. 

I  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  letters  of  Ed- 
wards and  Lewis  were  drafted,  not  by  the  persons 
whose  signatures  they  bear,  but  by  the  Kev.  J.  A. 
Eeed. 

We  come  next  to  the  testimony  of  Noah  Brooks. 
Mr.  Edwards,  supported  by  Mr.  Lewis,  states  that 
Lincoln  was  converted  soon  after  Dr.  Smith  located 
at  Springfield,  and  about  the  time  of  his  son  Eddie's 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  61 

death.  Dr.  Smith  came  to  Springfield  in  1848,  and 
Eddie  died  toward  the  close  of  the  same  year.  Dr. 
Smith,  in  his  letter,  does  not  state  when  Lincoln's 
conversion  took  place,  but  it  is  understood  from 
other  sources  that  he  claimed  that  it  occurred  about 
the  year  1858.  Mr.  Brooks,  in  his  letter  to  Dr.  Eeed, 
says  :  "  Speaking  to  me  of  the  change  which  had 
come  upon  him,  he  said,  while  he  could  not  fix  any 
definite  time,  yet  it  was  after  he  came  here  [Washing- 
ton], and  I  am  very  positive  that  in  his  own  mind  he 
identified  it  with  about  the  time  of  Willie's  death." 

Willie's  death  occurred  in  February,  1862,  nearly 
fourteen  years  after  the  death  of  Eddie,  and  four 
years  after  Smith  claimed  to  have  converted  Lincoln. 
Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  these  witnesses  nullify  each 
other.  The  testimony  of  each  is  contradicted  and 
refuted  by  the  testimony  of  the  other  two.  Mr. 
Edwards  says  that  Lincoln  was  converted  in  1848. 
This  is  contradicted  by  the  testimony  of  both  Smith 
and  Brooks.  According  to  Dr.  Smith  his  conversion 
happened  about  1858.  This  is  contradicted  by  the 
testimony  of  both  Edwards  and  Brooks.  Mr.  Brooks 
is  quite  positive  that  it  took  place  about  the  time  of 
Willie's  death,  in  1862.  This,  in  turn,  is  contra- 
dicted by  the  testimony  of  both  Edwards  and  Smith. 
If  Mr.  Edwards  is  right,  both  Dr.  Smith  and  Mr.  Brooks 
are  wrong.  If  Dr.  Smith  is  correct,  both  Mr.  Ed- 
wards and  Mr.  Brooks  are  incorrect.     If  Mr.  Brooks 


62  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

has  stated  the  truth  both  Mr.  Edwards  and  Dr. 
Smith  have  stated  falsehoods. 

The  testimony  of  these  witnesses  does  not 
strengthen  Reed's  case,  but  weakens  it.  The  testi- 
mony of  two  of  them  is  self-evidently  false,  and  this 
is  a  sufficient  reason  for  doubting  the  truthfulness 
of  the  third.  Had  the  evidence  of  neither  Edwards 
nor  Smith  been  invalidated  by  the  evidence  of  the 
others,  the  fact  that  Lincoln  is  so  generally  conceded 
to  have  been  an  unbeliever  up  to  the  time  that  he 
became  President,  would  render  it  unworthy  of  con- 
sideration. The  testimony  of  Brooks  alone  demands 
notice.  Did  Lincoln  change  his  belief  after  he  left 
Springfield  and  went  to  Washington  ?  The  evidence 
upon  this  point  is  decisive. 

The  man  who  stood  nearest  to  President  Lincoln 
at  Washington — nearer  than  any  clergyman  or  news- 
paper correspondent — was  his  private  secretary, 
Col.  John  G.  Nicolay.  In  a  letter  dated  May  27, 
1865,  Colonel  Nicolay  says  : 

"Mr.  Lincoln  did  not,  to  my  knowledge,  in  any 
way  change  his  religious  ideas,  opinions,  or  beliefs 
from  the  time  he  left  Springfield  to  the  day  of  his 
death." 

In  a  letter  to  his  old  friend.  Judge  Wakefield, 
written  after  Willie's  death,  he  declared  that  his 
earlier  views  of  the  unsoundness  of  the  Christian 
scheme  of  salvation,  and  the  human  origin  of  the 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  63 

Scriptures,  Lad  become  clearer  and  stronger  witli 
advancing  years,  and  he  did  not  tliink  be  should 
ever  change  them. 

After  his  assassination  Mrs.  Lincoln  said :  "  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  no  hope  and  no  faith  in  the  usual  ac- 
ceptance of  these  words."  His  lifelong  friend  and 
executor,  Judge  David  Davis,  affirmed  the  same : 
"He  had  no  faith  in  the  Christian  sense  of  the 
term."  His  biographer.  Colonel  Lamon,  intimately 
acquainted  with  him  in  Illinois,  and  with  him  during 
all  the  years  that  he  lived  in  Washington,  says  : 
"Never  in  all  that  time  did  he  let  fall  from  his  lips 
or  his  pen  an  expression  which  remotely  implied 
the  slightest  faith  in  Jesus  as  the  son  of  God  and 
the  Savior  of  men." 

Why  do  the  statements  of  these  witnesses,  Smith, 
Edwards,  and  Brooks,  not  agree  respecting  the  date 
of  Lincoln's  conversion?  When  their  testimony 
was  given.  Smith  was  in  Scotland,  Edwards  was  in 
Illinois,  and  Brooks  was  in  New  York. 

If  he  was  converted,  why  was  the  fact  not  revealed 
before  his  death  ?  Why  did  these  men  wait  until 
he  died  to  make  these  statements  to  the  world? 
Simply  because  the  dead  can  make  no  reply. 

Had  Lincoln  been  converted,  the  news  would  have 
been  wafted  on  the  wings  of  lightning  from  one  end 
of  the  continent  to  the  other.  It  would  have  been 
published  in  every  newspaper ;  it  would  have  been 


64  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

proclaimed  from  every  pulpit ;  it  would  have  been  a 
topic  of  conversation  at  every  fireside.  When  Henry 
Wilson,  a  man  of  far  less  note  than  Lincoln,  was  con- 
verted to  Christianity,  the  fact  was  heralded  all  over 
the  land. 

Lincoln's  home  was  twice  visited  by  death  during 
his  lifetime,  and  both  occasions  have  been  seized 
upon  to  assert  that  he  experienced  a  change  of  heart. 
The  death  of  a  beloved  child  is  no  common  sorrow, 
and  the  womanly  tenderness  of  Lincoln's  heart  made 
it  doubly  poignant  to  him.  "  When  death  entered 
his  household,"  says  his  friend,  George  W.  Julian, 
"  his  sorrow  was  so  consuming  that  it  could  only  be 
measured  by  the  singular  depth  and  intensity  of  his 
love."  That  Mr.  Edwards  and  Mr.  Brooks  did  each 
observe  a  change  in  the  demeanor  of  the  grief- 
stricken  father,  following  the  sad  events  referred  to, 
is  not  improbable.  But  a  manifestation  of  sorrow  is 
no  proof  of  a  theological  change. 

Three  of  Keed's  witnesses  remain — three  clergy- 
men— Dr.  Sunderland,  Dr.  Miner,  and  Dr.  Gurley. 
Dr.  Sunderland  is  a  man  of  distinction.  He  lias  had 
the  honor  of  praying  for  the  United  States  Senate 
and  officiating  at  the  marriage  of  a  President.  Yet, 
distinction  is  not  always  the  badge  of  honesty. 
W.  H.  Burr,  a  literary  gentleman,  of  Washington, 
writing  to  a  Boston  paper  in  1880,  paid  the  following 
tribute  to  Dr.  Sunderland's  veracity :  "  He  can  prob- 


WAS  HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  66 

ably  put  more  falsehood  and  calumny  in  a  page  of 
foolscap  than  any  priest  out  of  prison." 

Mr.  Sunderland  called  upon  the  President  in  1862. 
In  his  letter  to  Eeed  he  says  :  "  For  one  half  hour 
[he]  poured  forth  a  volume  of  the  deepest  Christian 
philosophy  I  ever  heard."  Notwithstanding  ten 
years  had  elapsed  since  that  visit,  he  proceeded  to 
give  from  memory  a  verbatim  report  of  Lincoln's 
remarks.  The  report  is  too  long  to  reproduce  in 
this  work,  and  even  if  correct,  would  add  but  little 
to  the  weight  of  Christian  evidence  already  pre- 
sented. It  is  merely  an  ethical  discourse,  and  aside 
from  a  few  indirect  admissions  in  favor  of  Christian- 
ity for  which  Sunderland  doubtless  drew  upon  liis 
imagination,  there  is  nothing  that  Paine  or  any  other 
Deist  might  not  with  propriety  have  uttered.  Those 
who  wish  to  peruse  Mr.  Sunderland's  letter  will  find 
it  in  Scribner's  Monthly  for  July,  1873. 

Dr.  Miner,  like  Dr.  Sunderland,  had  a  quiet  chat 
with  the  President,  and  what  was  said  he  assures  us 
is  too  deeply  engraved  on  his  memory  ever  to  be 
effaced.  But,  unlike  Dr.  Sunderland,  he.  does  not 
favor  us  with  a  transcript  of  it.  He  does  not  repeat 
a  word  that  was  uttered.  He  states,  however,  that, 
"  If  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  really  an  experimental 
Christian,  he  was  acting  like  one."  But  how  does  an 
experimental  Christian  act  ?  If  he  behaves  himself, 
if  he  is  intelligent  and  honest,  his  actions  are  not 


66  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

materially  different  from  those  of  a  good  Freethinker. 
Dr.  Miner  did  not  believe  that  Lincoln  was  an  ex- 
perimental Christian,  and  in  his  article  there  is  an 
implied  admission  that  he  knew  nothing  about  his 
religion. 

He  says  that,  "  Like  the  immortal  Washington,  he 
believed  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer."  The  comparison 
is  happily  drawn.  Lincoln  probably  did  believe  as 
much  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer  as  Washington  ;  that 
is  to  say,  he  did  not  believe  in  it  at  all,  in  the  evan- 
gelical sense.  There  is  no  evidence  that  Washing- 
ton believed  in  prayer,  no  proof  that  he  ever  ut- 
tered a  prayer.  That  story  about  his  praying  at 
Valley  Forge  is  as  truly  a  myth  as  the  story  about 
the  hatchet.  The  Eev.  E.  D.  Neill,  an  eminent 
Episcopal  minister,  and  a  relative  of  the  person  who 
is  reported  to  have  seen  Washington  engaged  in 
prayer,  pronounces  it  a  fiction. 

Dr.  Gurley  is  represented  as  saying :  "  I  con- 
sidered him  sound  not  only  on  the  truth  of  the 
Christian  religion,  but  on  all  its  fundamental  doc- 
trines and  teachings."  This,  remember,  is  from  a 
Calvinistic  standpoint.  Lincoln,  then,  not  only  ac- 
cepted Christianity,  but  its  most  ultra  variety — Cal- 
vinism. He  believed  in  original  sin,  predestination 
(including  infant  damnation),  particular  redemption, 
irresistible  grace,  and  perseverance  of  the  saints. 
Because   he   sometimes  went  with  his  wife  to  the 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  67 

Presbyterian  church,  of  which  she  was  an  adherent, 
the  priests  of  this  denomination  have  the  contempt- 
ible assurance  to  assert  that  he  was  a  rigid  Calvin- 
ist! 

When  he  died  Dr.  Gurley,  being  Mrs.  Lincoln's 
pastor,  delivered  the  funeral  oration  in  "Washington. 
In  that  oration  Dr.  Gurley  did  not  affirm  that  Lin- 
coln was  a  Christian,  a  thing  he  would  not  have 
failed  to  do  had  it  been  true.  Long  after  Lincoln's 
death,  Dr.  Gurley,  if  Eeed  has  correctly  reported 
him,  makes  a  statement  that  he  had  not  the  courage 
to  make  over  his  dead  body. 

A  reputable  Christian  gentleman,  of  Springfield, 
who  desires  to  have  his  name  withheld  from  the 
public,  declares  that  Dr.  Gurley  knew  and  admitted 
that  Lincoln  was  a  disbeliever  in  Christianity. 

It  is  quite  probable  that  Gurley  did  not  state  in 
full  what  Reed  reports  him  to  have  stated.  A  man 
who  can  take  up  his  pen  and  at  one  sitting  indite  a 
score  of  falsehoods  and  misrepresentations,  as  Reed, 
on  a  subsequent  occasion,  is  shown  to  have  done, 
can  not  be  relied  upon  for  accuracy  as  a  reporter. 

The  reader  has  doubtless  not  failed  to  notice  the 
introduction  of  a  claim  by  Reed  to  the  effect  that 
Lincoln  at  the  time  of  his  assassination  was  intend- 
ing to  unite  with  the  church.  That  the  idea  wag 
suggested  by  Reed  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  no  less 
than  three  of  these  witnesses,  including  Reed,  allude 


68  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

to  it.  Eeed  says  :  "  While  it  is  to  be  regretted  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  spared  to  indicate  his  religious 
sentiments  by  a  profession  of  his  faith  in  accordance 
with  the  institutions  of  the  Christian  religion,  yet  it 
is  very  clear  that  he  had  this  step  in  view."  Dr. 
Gurley  is  made  to  say  :  "  It  was  his  intention  soon 
to  make  a  profession  of  religion."  Mr.  Brooks  says  : 
"  I  absorbed  [the  porosity  of  some  of  these  witnesses 
ia  remarkable]  the  firm  conviction  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
.  .  .  was  seriously  considering  the  step  which 
would  formally  connect  him  with  the  visible  church 
on  earth." 

This  dernier  resort  of  an  argument  has  been  re- 
peated respecting  nearly  every  notable  person  who 
has  died  outside  of  the  church.  Soon  after  the  pub- 
lication of  Eeed's  lecture,  the  New  York  World  con- 
tained the  following  pertinent  answer  to  this  stale 
fabrication  : 

"  It  is  admitted  by  Mr.  Beed  and  everybody  else 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  working  Infidel  up  to  a  very 
late  period  of  his  life,  that  he  wrote  a  book  and 
labored  earnestly  to  make  proselytes  to  his  own 
views,  that  he  never  publicly  recanted,  and  that  he 
never  joined  the  church.  Upon  those  who,  in  the 
face  of  these  tremendous  facts,  allege  that  he  was 
nevertheless  a  Christian  lies  the  burden  of  proof. 
Let  them  produce  it  or  forever  hold  their  peace.  In 
the  mean  time  it  is  a  sad  and  puerile  subterfuge  to 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  69 

argue  that  be  would  have  been  a  Christian  if  he  had 
lived  long  enough,  and  to  lament  that  he  was  not 
'  spared '  for  that  purpose.  He  had  been  spared 
fifty-six  years  and  surrounded  by  every  circumstance 
that  might  soften  his  heart  and  every  influence  that 
might  elevate  his  faith.  If  he  was  at  that  late,  that 
fatal  hour  standing  thus  gloomily  without  the  pale, 
what  reason  have  we  to  suppose  that  he  intended  ever 
to  enter?  " 

Reed  speaks  of  "  the  poverty  of  his  early  religious 
instruction,"  apparently  forgetting  that  he  was  raised 
by  Christian  parents.  His  father  was  a  church- 
member,  his  mother  was  a  church-member,  and  his 
stepmother  was  a  church-member.  Beed  states, 
also,  that  the  books  he  read  were  all  of  an  anti- 
religious  character.  Holland,  on  the  contrary,  de- 
clares that  better  books  than  those  he  read  could 
not  have  been  chosen  from  the  richest  library.  The 
fact  is,  Abraham  Lincoln  did  not  become  an  Infidel 
to  Christianity  from  a  lack  of  knowledge  respecting 
its  claims.  He  thoroughly  examined  its  claims,  and 
rejected  them  because  he  found  them  untenable. 

One  important  feature  of  this  subject  Heed  has 
either  inadvertently  omitted  or  purposely  ignored, 
and  that  is  in  regard  to  the  validity  of  the  Bateman 
story.  As.  the  result  of  previous  controversy  this 
evidence  had  been  rendered  valueless.  Lincoln's 
partner  had  declared  it  to  be  false,  had  asserted  that 


70  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

Mr.  Bateman  in  private  conversations  acknowledged 
it  to  be  in  part  untrue,  and  announced  his  readiness 
to  substantiate  his  assertions  if  Mr.  Bateman  could 
be  prevailed  upon  to  permit  the  publication  of  his 
notes  of  these  conversations  taken  at  the  time.  If 
Mr.  Herndon's  affirmations  were  true,  it  destroyed 
the  testimony  of  Holland  and  Bateman ;  if  untrue, 
it  challenged  Mr.  Bateman  to  reaffirm  the  state- 
ments recorded  by  Holland,  and  allow  the  seal  of 
privacy  to  be  removed  from  his  conversations  on  the 
subject.  Why  did  Mr.  Eeed  not  rehabilitate  this 
damaged  evidence?  Did  he  forget  it?  No,  it  is 
plainly  evident  that  he  did  not  dare  to  attempt  it. 

In  reviewing  this  Calvinistic  coterie  of  witnesses 
(they  are  all  Calvinists,  and  nearly  all  Presbyterians), 
one  is  struck  with  the  formidable  display  of  theo- 
logical appendages.  What  an  imposing  array  of 
D.D.'s !  Kev.  J.  A.  Reed,  D.D.!  Rev.  James  Smith, 
D.D.!  Rev.  Byron  Sunderland,  D.D.!  Rev.  Mr. 
Miner,  D.D.!  Rev.  Mr.  Gurley,  D.D.!  It  was  a 
desperate  case — divinity  was  sick  and  needed  doc- 
toring. The  doctors  of  divinity  were  accordingly 
called  in,  and  prescribed  "  The  Later  Life  and  Re- 
ligious Sentiments  of  Abraham  Lincoln,"  after  which 
it  was  supposed  that  divinity  would  recover.  He 
may  be  better,  but  it  is  painfully  apparent  that  some 
of  these  D.D.'s  are  themselves  sadly  in  need  of  a 
doctor. 


Mrs.   Ciulwiilader   Guild,    New    York,   Sculptor 

LINCOLN 


WAS  HE  A  CHEISTIAN?  71 


CHAPTER    IV. 

REVIEW  OP  CHRISTIAN   TESTIMONY — ARNOLD  AND    OTHER 
WITNESSES. 

Arnold's  "  Life  of  Lincoln  " — Claim3  Concerning  Lincoln's  Religious 
Belief — Address  to  Negroes  of  Baltimore — Carpenter — Hawley — Willets 
— Pious  Nurse —  Western  Christian  Advocate — Illinois  Clergyman 
— Barrows — Vinton — Simpson. 

With  the  Christian  masses  whose  minds  have  be- 
come warped  by  the  bigoted  teachings  of  their  cler- 
ical leaders,  nothing  affects  the  reputation  of  a  man 
so  much  as  his  religious  belief.  Public  men  who  are 
disbelievers  are  fully  cognizant  of  this,  and  generally 
refrain  from  expressing  sentiments  that  would  tend 
to  alienate  those  upon  whom  the  retention  of  their 
positions  depends.  Biographers  understand  this^, 
too,  and  are  likewise  aware  that  a  dead  Infidel  is  as 
cordially  hated  as  a  live  one.  They  know  that  a 
cold  reception  awaits  their  works  unless  they  are 
able  to  clothe  the  characters  of  their  subjects  in  the 
robes  of  popular  superstition.  Mr.  Arnold  realized 
this  when  he  wrote  his  "  Life  of  Lincoln."  He  had 
been  most  forcibly  reminded  of  the  fact  by  the  fate 
of  two  biographies   of   his  own  subject  which  had 


72  ABRAH.OI    LINCOLN: 

already  appeared— Holland's  and  Lamon's.  Hol- 
land's work  by  catering  to  popular  prejudice,  regard- 
less of  truth,  Lad  been  financially  a  success;  Lamon's 
work  by  adhering  to  truth,  regardless  of  popular 
prejudice,  had  been  financially  a  failure. 

Determined  to  profit  by  these  examples,  and  in- 
timidated by  the  threats  and  entreaties  of  those  who 
had  resolved  to  secure  for  Christianity  the  influence 
of  the  Great  Emancipator's  name,  Arnold  dare  not 
give  the  facts  regarding  Lincoln's  religious  belief. 
Nor  is  it  to  be  presumed  that  he  desired  to.  He  had 
previously  appeared  as  a  special  pleader  for  the  pop- 
ular faith. 

He  affirms  that  "  No  more  reverent  Christian  than 
Lincoln  ever  sat  in  the  Executive  chair,  not  except- 
ing Wasliington."  The  fact  is,  when  Arnold  wrote 
his  biography  of  Lincoln,  no  very  reverent  Christian 
ever  had  occupied  the  Executive  chair.  Previous  to 
the  installation  of  Gen.  B.  H.  Harrison  no  real 
orthodox  Christian  communicant  had  held  the  office 
of  President. 

If  Mr.  Arnold  knew  no  more  about  Lincoln's 
religion  than  he  appears  to  have  known  about  Wash- 
ington's, a  more  charitable  reason  than  those  sug- 
gested might  be  assigned  for  his  statements  concern- 
ing the  former.  Washington,  like  Lincoln,  has  been 
claimed  by  the  church  ;  yet,  Washington,  like  Lin- 
coln,  was  a  Deist.     This  is  admitted  even  by  the 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  73 

leading  churchmen  of  his  day.  Three  of  the  most 
eminent  divines  of  his  age,  and  the  three  to  whom  he 
was  most  intimately  related  in  a  social  way,  were 
Bishop  White,  Rev.  Dr.  Abercrombie,  and  Rev.  Dr. 
Ashbel  Green.  Bishop  White  declares  that  Wash- 
ington was  not  a  communicant,  as  claimed  by  some, 
and  intimates  that  he  was  a  disbeliever.  The  Rev. 
Dr.  Abercrombie,  whose  church  he  attended  while 
he  was  President,  said :  "  Washington  was  a 
Deist."  The  Rev.  Dr.  Ashbel  Green,  chaplain  to 
Congress  during  his  administration,  said  :  "  Like 
nearly  all  the  founders  of  the  Republic,  he  was  not 
a  Christian,  but  a  Deist." 

Arnold  presents  the  following  as  the  basis  of  Lin- 
coln's religion,  and  proofs  of  his  Christianity  :  "(1) 
Belief  in  the  existence  of  God,  (2)  in  the  immortality 
of  the  soul,  (3)  in  the  Bible  as  the  revelation  of  God 
to  man,  (4)  in  the  efl&cacy  and  duty  of  prayer,  (5)  in 
reverence  toward  the  Almighty,  and  (6)  in  love  and 
charity  to  man." 

L  '■  Belief  in  the  existence  of  God."  This  does 
not  prove  a  belief  in  Christianity.  The  Jew  believes 
in  the  existence  of  God  ;  the  Mohammedan  believes 
in  the  existence  of  God  ;  the  Deistic  Infidel  believes 
in  the  existence  of  God. 

2.  "  Belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul."  That 
he  believed  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  is  a  claim 
that  cannot  be  clearly  established;  and  even  if  it 


74  ABKAHAM    LINCOLN: 

could,  would  not  confirm  the  assumption  that  he  wag 
a  Christian.  Deists,  many  of  them,  believe  in  the 
doctrine  of  immortality.  Paine  believed  in  immor- 
tality ;  Voltaire  believed  in  immortality. 

3.  "  Belief  in  the  Bible  as  the  revelation  of  God  to 
man."  This,  if  true,  would  be  evidence  of  his  Chris- 
tianity ;  but,  unfortunately  for  Mr.  Arnold's  claim, 
Lincoln  did  not  entertain  this  belief. 

4.  "  Belief  in  the  efficacy  and  duty  of  prayer." 
This,  in  the  orthodox  sense  of  these  terms,  is  not 
true  ;  and  if  it  were,  would  not  furnish  conclusive 
evidence  that  he  was  a  Christian.  Jews  pray  ;  Mo- 
hammedans pray ;  Buddhists  pray ;  some  Deists 
pray.  Franklin  believed  in  the  efficacy  and  duty  of 
prayer,  and  Franklin  was  an  Infidel. 

5.  *'  Belief  in  reverence  to  the  Almighty."  This 
does  not  demonstrate  a  belief  in  Christianity,  for  all 
Deists  believe  in  reverence  to  the  Almighty. 

6.  "  Belief  in  love  and  charity  to  man."  When  it 
can  be  shown  that  only  Christians  believe  in  love 
and  charity,  then  will  it  be  time  to  affirm  that  Lin- 
coln was  a  Christian. 

Arnold  confounds  Christianity  with  Deism.  In 
the  following  words  he  admits  that  Lincoln  was 
simply  a  Deist :  "Not  orthodox,  not  a  man  of  creeds, 
he  was  a  man  of  simple  trust  in  God." 

When  the  subject  of  Lincoln's  belief  was  once 
mentioned  to  Mr.  Arnold,  he  said :  "  Lincoln  was  a 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  76 

rational  Christian  because  he  believed  in  morality." 
With  equal  propriety  one  might  say  of  an  upright 
Christian,  "  He  is  a  rational  Freethinker  because  he 
believes  in  morality." 

"  His  reply  to  the  Negroes  of  Baltimore,"  he  says, 
"  ought  to  silence  forever  those  who  charge  him  with 
unbelief."  This  alleged  reply  of  Lincoln  was  as  fol- 
lows : 

*'  In  regard  to  the  Great  Book  I  have  only  to  say 
that  it  is  the  best  gift  which  God  has  given  to  man. 
All  the  good  from  the  Savior  of  the  world  is  com- 
municated to  us  through  this  book.  But  for  this 
book  we  could  not  know  right  from  wrong.  All 
those  things  desirable  to  man  are  contained  in  it  " 
(Lincoln  Memorial  Album,  p.  340). 

The  writer  of  this  was  in  Washington  when  the 
colored  deputation  from  Baltimore  presented  the 
President  with  a  $500  Bible.  The  papers  mentioned 
the  fact  at  the  time,  but  no  such  speech  as  Lincoln 
is  said  to  have  made  appeared  in  the  reports.  About 
two  months  later,  this  apocryphal  version  of  his  re- 
marks on  the  occasion  referred  to,  made  its  appear- 
ance. 

The  first  two  sentences  contained  in  this  speech 
(the  only  part  of  it  that  Arnold  has  quoted),  Lincoln, 
if  a  Christian,  might  have  uttered.  They  are  words 
that  any  intelligent  Christian  might,  from  his  stand- 
point, with  propriety  affirm.     We  are  familiar  with 


76  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN! 

these  claims.  We  are  also  familiar  with  the  claims 
embodied  in  the  last  two  sentences.  They  are  re- 
peatedly made.  But  they  are  made  only  by  very 
ignorant  persons,  or  by  clerical  hypocrites  who  try 
to  impose  upon  the  ignorance  and  credulity  of  their 
hearers.  Had  Lincoln  been  a  Christian  he  would 
not  have  used  these  words,  because  he  was  too  in- 
telligent to  believe  them,  and  too  honest  to  pretend 
to  believe  them. 

Concerning  this  speech,  Lincoln's  partner,  Mr. 
Herndon,  thus  vigorously,  yet  truthfully,  remarks  : 

"I  am  aware  of  the  fraud  committed  on  Mr.  Lin- 
coln in  reporting  some  insane  remarks  supposed 
to  have  been  made  by  him,  in  1864,  on  the  presenta- 
tion of  a  Bible  to  him  by  the  colored  people  of  Balti- 
more. No  sane  man  ever  uttered  such  folly,  and  no 
sane  man  will  ever  believe  it.  In  that  speech  Mr. 
Lincoln  is  made  to  say :  *  But  for  this  book  we  could 
not  know  right  from  wrong.'  Does  any  human  being 
believe  that  Lincoln  ever  uttered  this  ?  What  did 
the  whole  race  of  man  do  to  know  right  from  wrong 
during  the  countless  years  that  passed  before  this 
book  was  given  to  the  world  ?  How  did  the  strug- 
gling race  of  man  build  up  its  grand  civilizations  in 
the  world  before  this  book  was  given  to  mankind  ? 
What  do  the  millions  of  people  now  living,  who 
never  heard  of  this  book,  do  to  know  how  to  dis- 
tinguish right  from  wrong  ?     Was  Lincoln  a  fool,  an 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  77 

ass,  a  hypocrite,  or  a  combination  of  them  all  ?  or  is 
this  speech — this  supposed — this  fraudulent  speech 
—a  lie?" 

Arnold  would  have  his  readers  believe  that  this 
speech  is  genuine.  And  yet  it  is  plainly  evident 
that  he  himself  does  not  believe  it.  He  mutilates  it 
by  omitting  the  more  orthodox  portion  of  it — the 
very  portion  he  would  have  retained  had  he  believed 
it  to  be  genuine.  The  first  part  would  suffice  to 
serve  his  purpose  ;  the  remainder  he  kiew  was  too 
incredible  for  belief  and  would  stamp  the  whole  as  a 
fraud. 

Arnold  says  :  "  The  veil  between  him  and  the 
supernatural  was  very  thin."  Yes,  so  thin  that  he 
easily  saw  through  it  and  recognized  the  greater 
part  of  it  to  be  a  sham. 

"  His  faith  in  a  Divine  Providence  began  at  his 
mother's  knee,  and  ran  through  all  the  changes  of 
his  life."  I  do  not  desire  to  charge  Mr.  Arnold  with 
plagiarism,  but  the  foregoing  recalls  the  following 
much  admired  passage  to  be  found  in  Holland : 
"  This  unwavering  faith  in  a  Divine  Providence 
began  at  his  mother's  knee,  and  ran  like  a  thread  of 
gold  through  all  the  inner  experiences  of  his  life  " 
(Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  61,  62). 

There  is  much  in  Arnold's  biography,  aside  from 
the  above,  to  suggest  that  Holland's  work  formed 
the  basis  and  model  of  his  own.     While  more  accu- 


78  ABEAHAM    LINCOLN: 

rate  in  the  main  tlian  Holland's  "Life,"  Arnold's 
"  Life  "  is  in  some  respects  equally  unreliable,  and 
less  readable. 

Adverting  to  the  many  fraudulent  stories  that  have 
been  circulated  concerning  Lincoln,  in  an  address 
delivered  in  London,  Mr.  Arnold  said  :  "  The  news- 
papers in  America  have  always  been  full  of  Lincoln 
stories  and  anecdotes,  some  true  and  many  fabulous." 
Unfortunately  for  the  cause  of  truth,  Mr.  Arnold  has 
himself  recorded  some  of  these  fabulous  stories,  not 
because  he  deemed  them  authentic,  but  because  they 
agreed  with  his  preconceived  prejudices,  or  the 
prejudices  of  those  whom  he  wished  to  please. 

Mr.  Carpenter  says  :  "  I  would  scarcely  have  called 
Mr.  Lincoln  a  religious  man,  and  yet  I  believe  him 
to  have  been  a  sincere  Christian." 

In  a  letter,  Mr.  Herndon  makes  the  following  cor- 
rection in  regard  to  his  friend  Carpenter's  state- 
ment : 

"  Mr.  Carpenter  has  not  expressed  his  own  ideas 
correctly.  To  say  that  a  man  is  a  Christian  and  yet 
not  a  religious  man  is  absurd.  Religion  is  the  generic 
term  including  all  forms  of  religion  ;  Christianity  is 
a  specific  term  representing  one  form  of  religion. 
Carpenter  means  to  say  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a 
religious  man  but  not  a  Christian,  and  this  is  the 
truth." 

It  is  unfortunate  that  while  in   many   cases  we 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  79 

have  several  words  to  express  the  same  idea,  the 
same  word  in  mauy  cases  is  employed  to  express 
different  ideas.  Ideas  thus  become  confused.  li 
the  terms  morality,  religion,  and  Christianity,  were 
always  used  in  their  legitimate  sense — used  to  ex- 
press the  ideas  of  which  they  were  the  original  signs 
— much  trouble  and  ambiguity  would  be  avoided. 
As  it  is,  they  are  promiscuously  used  as  interchange- 
able terms.  Mauy  use  the  word  religion  and  even 
Christianity  when  they  mean  morality.  Mr.  Carpen- 
ter uses  the  word  religioiis  in  its  proper  sense,  and 
the  word  Christian  to  mean  a  moral  man.  The  fol- 
lowing examples  will  serve  to  illustrate  the  various 
forms  employed  to  express  the  thought  now  under 
consideration : 

"  I  would  scarcely  have  called  Mr.  Lincoln  a  re- 
ligious man,  and  yet  I  believe  him  to  have  been  a 
sincere  Christian." — Carpenter. 

*'  I  would  scarcely  have  called  Mr.  Lincoln  a 
Christian,  and  yet  I  believe  him  to  have  been  a  truly 
religious  man." — Herndon. 

I  would  scarcely  have  called  Mr.  Lincoln  a  relig- 
ious man,  and  yet  I  believe  him  to  have  been  a  truly 
moral  man. — Author. 

We  all  desire  to  express  substantially  the  same 
thought.  I  do  not  wish  to  dictate  to  Mr.  Carpenter 
and  Mr.  Herndon  what  words  they  shall  employ  to 
convey  an  idea,  but  this  explanation  is  essential  to 


80  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

a  proper  understanding  of  the  question  in  dispute 
and  will  help  to  reconcile  much  of  the  apparently 
conHicting  testimony  presented  in  this  work. 

As  Lincoln  was  in  a  certain  sense  a  Deist,  the  re- 
ligious element  was  not  entirely  wanting  in  him,  and 
hence  the  statement  of  Mr.  Herndon  that  he  was  a 
religious  man  is,  in  a  degree,  true. 

The  basis  of  Carpenter's  work  was  a  series  of 
articles  contributed  to  the  New  York  Independent 
When  it  was  decided  to  publish  these  in  book  form, 
to  swell  them  into  a  volume  of  the  desired  size,  to 
his  personal  reminiscences  he  added  many  of  the 
stories  pertaining  to  Lincoln  then  going  the  rounds 
of  the  press.  Although  he  was  as  it  were  a  member 
of  Lincoln's  household  six  months  he  failed  to  hear 
from  Lincoln's  lips  a  word  expressing  a  belief  in 
Christianity.  These  apocryphal  stories,  and  these 
alone,  contain  all  the  evidences  of  Lincoln's  alleged 
piety  to  be  found  in  Carpenter's  book.  And  his 
admission  that  Lincoln  was  not  a  religious  man  dis- 
proves them. 

Mr.  Hawley  professed  to  believe  that  Lincoln  was 
a  Christian,  but  he  had  no  personal  knowledge  of  the 
fact,  although  his  neighbor  for  many  years.  The 
only  reasons  he  was  able  to  adduce  upon  which  to 
predicate  his  belief  were  the  Bateman  story  and  his 
farewell  speech  on  leaving  Springfield.  The  former 
has  been  exploded,  the  latter  proves  nothing. 


WAS   HE   A  CHRISTIAN?  81 

During  all  the  later  3'ears  of  his  life  Lincoln  gen- 
erally refrained  from  expressing  his  anti-Christian 
opinions,  except  to  friends  who  shared  his  views. 
This  silence,  in  connection  with  his  sterling  moral 
character,  might  lead  some  of  his  Christian  neigh- 
bors to  suppose  that  he  was  a  believer,  the  more 
especially  as  Christians  are  generally  ignorant  of  the 
extent  of  unbelief,  and  are  loath  to  believe  that  a 
person,  unless  he  openly  avows  his  disbelief,  can  be 
an  Infidel. 

According  to  Mr.  Willets,  Lincoln,  during  the 
war,  had  an  attack  of  what  he  thought  might  be  a 
"  change  of  heart."  He  consulted  a  pious  lady  in 
regard  to  it  and  requested  her  to  describe  to  him  the 
symptoms  attending  this  theological  disease.  She 
defined  "  a  true  religious  experience "  as  "  a  con- 
viction of  one's  own  sinfulness  and  weakness,  and 
personal  need  of  the  Savior  for  strength  and  sup- 
port." She  said  that  "  when  one  was  really  brought 
to  feel  his  need  of  divine  help,  and  to  seek  the  aid 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  for  strength  and  guidance,  it  was 
satisfactory  evidence  of  his  having  been  born  again." 
Lincoln  replied  that  if  what  she  had  told  him  was 
"  a  correct  view  of  this  great  subject,"  he  hoped  he 
was  a  Christian.  But  was  this  a  correct  view  of  it  ? 
I  was  not  aware  that  conviction  constituted  con- 
version. We  have  been  taught  that  conviction  is  but 
a  preliminary  step  toward  conversion.     If  Lincoln 


82  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

relied  upon  this  as  a  true  exposition  of  this  doctrine, 
the  genuineness  of  his  conversion  may  well  be  ques- 
tioned. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Mr.  "Willets  did  not  give 
the  name  of  his  informant.  As  it  is,  we  do  not  know 
whether  to  credit  "  a  lady  acquaintance  of  his,"  or 
himself,  with  the  invention  of  a  first-class  fiction. 

In  regard  to  the  story  of  the  "  Pious  Nurse,"  we 
have  not  even  a  clergyman  to  vouch  for  its  authen- 
ticity. We  do  not  know  the  name  of  this  witness  ; 
we  do  not  know  whom  she  communicated  the  story 
to ;  we  do  not  know  when  nor  where  it  made  its  first 
appearance.  We  only  know  that  for  years  it  has 
been  floating  through  the  columns  of  the  religious 
press,  a  companion-piece  to  Washington's  devotional 
exercise  at  Valley  Forge. 

"  History,"  said  Napoleon,  "  is  a  set  of  lies  agreed 
upon."  Of  the  many  lies  agreed  upon  by  Christian 
writers  in  making  up  the  history  of  Lincoln,  none 
has  become  more  thoroughly  established  than  the 
one  originally  published  by  the  Western  Christian 
Advocate.  It  has  been  incorporated  into  the  works 
of  a  score  of  historians  and  biographers,  and  is 
almost  universally  accepted  as  a  historical  fact. 

Nearly  all  the  pious  stories  relating  to  Lincoln, 
while  palpably  false  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  knew 
him,  are  yet  of  such  a  nature  as  to  render  a  com- 
plete refutation  of  them  extremely  difficult.     The 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  83 

story  under  consideration,  however,  is  of  a  different 
character.  Its  truthfulness  or  falsity  could  at  the 
time  of  its  publication  have  been  easily  ascertained. 
If  true,  any  member  of  Lincoln's  cabinet  could  have 
verified  it.  I  knew  that  it  was  untrue — at  least  I 
knew  that  a  Cabinet  meeting  had  never  been  trans- 
formed into  a  prayer  meeting  at  Lincoln's  sugges- 
tion. I  finally  resolved  to  demonstrate  its  falsity  if 
possible.  But  a  quarter  of  a  century  had  passed 
away,  and  every  member  of  Lincoln's  Cabinet  was 
dead  save  one,  Hugh  McCulloch,  his  last  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury.  With  the  aid  of  a  friend,  Mr.  N. 
P.  Stockbridge,  of  Ft.  Wayne,  Ind.,  an  old  acquaint- 
ance of  Mr.  McCulloch's,  I  succeeded  in  bringing  the 
matter  before  this  only  surviving  witness,  and  re- 
ceived from  his  pen,  in  February,  1891,  the  following 
prompt  denial : 

"  The  description  of  what  occurred  at  the  Execu- 
tive Mansion,  when  the  intelligence  was  received  of 
the  surrender  of  the  Confederate  forces,  which  you 
quote  from  the  Western  Christian  Advocate,  is  not 
only  absolutely  groundless,  but  absurd.  After  I 
became  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  I  was  present  at 
every  Cabinet  meeting,  and  I  never  saw  Mr.  Lincoln 
or  any  of  his  ministers  upon  his  knees  or  in  tears. 

"We  were  not  especially  jubilant  over  Lee's  sur- 
render, for  this  we  had  been  prepared  for  some 
days.     The  time  for  our  great  rejoicing  was  a  little 


84  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  : 

earlier.  After  Sherman  bad  commeuced  liis  cele- 
brated march  to  the  sea,  and  long  and  weary  days 
had  passed  without  any  reliable  reports  from  him, 
we  were  filled  with  anxiety  and  apprehension.  It 
was  when  the  news  came  that  he  and  his  army,  in 
excellent  condition,  were  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Charleston,  that  our  joy  was  irrepressible  ;  not  only 
because  of  their  safety,  but  because  it  was  an  assur- 
ance that  the  days  of  the  Confederacy  were  nearly 
ended.  With  Grant  before  Richmond  in  command 
of  superior  forces,  and  Sherman  with  the  finest 
army  in  the  world,  ready  to  move  northward,  every- 
body felt  that  the  war  must  be  soon  concluded,  and 
that  the  Union  was  safe. 

"We  were,  of  course,  happy  when  General  Lee 
and  his  severely  tried  soldiers  laid  down  their  arms, 
but  this,  as  I  have  said,  was  not  unexpected.  It  was 
when  our  anxiety  in  regard  to  Sherman  was  suc- 
ceeded by  hopefulness  and  confidence  that  our  joy 
became  exuberant.  But  there  was  no  such  exhibi- 
tion of  it  as  has  been  published  by  the  Advocate." 

An  "  Illinois  Clergyman  "  reports  Lincoln  as  say- 
ing that  when  he  left  Springfield  he  was  not  a  Chris- 
tian, that  when  his  son  Willie  died  he  was  not  a 
Christian,  but  that  when  he  visited  the  battlefield  of 
Gettysburg  he  gave  his  heart  to  Christ.  Christians 
cite  the  testimony  of  this  anonymous  witness,  seem- 
ingly unconscious  of  the  fact  that  if  true  it  refutes 


WAS  HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  85 

the  testimony  of  every  other  Christian  witness.  If 
this  statement  be  true  what  becomes  of  the  testi- 
mony of  Holland  and  Bateman?  What  becomes  of 
the  testimony  of  Reed's  witnesses  ?  The  testimony 
of  Brooks  invalidated  the  testimony  of  every  other 
witness ;  the  testimony  of  this  Illinois  clergyman 
invalidates  the  testimony  of  Brooks  itself. 

Reed  did  not  present  this  evidence,  doubtless 
aware  that  his  lecture  already  contained  a  sufficient 
number  of  discrepancies.  He  was  thoughtful  enough, 
however,  to  anticipate  it.  He  had  Dr.  Gurley  refer 
to  Lincoln's  conversion  as  taking  place  "after  the 
death  of  his  son  Willie  and  his  visit  to  the  battle- 
field of  Gettysburg."  These  events  are  referred  to 
as  if  they  occurred  in  close  proximity  to  each  other ; 
whereas  the  death  of  Willie  occurred  during  the 
first  year  of  his  administration,  his  visit  to  Gettys- 
burg less  than  seventeen  months  before  his  assassi- 
nation. 

The  passage  quoted  from  Dr.  Barrows  contains 
six  specific  affirmations. 

1.  "  In  the  anxious  uncertainties  of  the  great  war, 
he  gradually  rose  to  the  hights  where  Jehovah  be- 
came to  him  the  sublimest  of  realities,  the  ruler  of 
nations." 

Collect  all  the  utterances  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  all 
the  letters  he  ever  wrote,  all  the  speeches  he  ever 
delivered,  all  the  state  papers  he  gave  to  the  public ; 


86  ABKAHAM     LINCOLN  : 

and  from  tliis  full  store  of  words  that  fell  from  liis 
lips  and  flowed  from  his  pen,  I  challenge  Dr.  Bar- 
rows to  produce  one  word  expressing  a  recognition 
of  Jehovah.  Jehovah  was  to  him,  not  "  the  sublim- 
est  of  realities,"  not  "  the  ruler  of  nations,"  but  a 
hideous  phantom.  He  recognized  a  God,  but  his 
God  was  not  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Dr.  Barrows. 

2.  "  When  he  wrote  his  immortal  Proclamation,  he 
invoked  upon  it  not  only  '  the  considerate  judgment 
of  mankind,'  but  '  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty 
God.'  " 

When  he  wrote  his  immortal  Proclamation  he  did 
not  invoke  "  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God." 
This  instrument,  as  drafted  by  Lincoln,  contained  no 
allusion  to  God.  The  paragraph  containing  the 
words  quoted  was  drafted  by  Secretary  Chase  and 
inserted  in  the  Proclamation  at  his  urgent  request 
after  it  was  printed  and  ready  for  delivery. 

3.  "  When  darkness  gathered  over  the  brave 
armies  fighting  for  the  nation's  life,  this  strong  man, 
in  the  early  morning,  knelt  and  wrestled  in  prayer 
with  Him  who  holds  in  his  hand  the  fate  of  em- 
pires." 

A  "  Christian  lady  from  Massachusetts  "  (name  un- 
known), and  a  Christian  gentleman  from  New  York 
(Noah  Brooks),  declare  that  Lincoln  was  accustomed 
to  pray.  This  declaration  is  echoed  by  Arnold,  and 
reechoed  by  Barrows,     If  true,  is  it  not  strange  that 


WA3   HE   A  CHRISTIAN?  87 

a  hospital  nurse  and  a  newspaper  reporter  were  in 
possession  of  the  fact  while  his  most  intimate  friends 
were  entirely  ignorant  of  it? 

4.  "  When  the  clouds  lifted  above  the  carnage  of 
Gettysburg,  he  gave  his  heart  to  the  Lord  Jesua 
Christ." 

This  is  the  fifth  time  that  Lincoln  gave  his  heart 
to  Christ.  The  above  statement  is  the  vital  one  in 
Dr.  Barrows's  testimony — the  keystone  in  the  arch 
comprising  "  the  religious  aspects "  of  Lincoln's 
Presidential  career.  The  others,  even  if  true,  only 
prove  a  Theistic  belief.  This  statement  affirms  that 
he  became  a  Christian — a  statement  evidently  based 
upon  the  anonymous  story  of  the  "  Illinois  clergy- 
man." Between  the  original  presented  by  the  "  Illi- 
nois clergyman  "  at  large,  and  that  presented  by  the 
Illinois  clergyman  from  Chicago,  however,  a  grave 
discrepancy  appears.  From  the  time  that  "  the 
clouds  lifted  above  the  carnage  of  Gettysburg  "  to 
the  time  that  Lincoln  visited  its  cemetery,  a  period 
of  twenty  weeks  had  elapsed.  Now,  did  Lincoln 
give  his  heart  to  Christ  when  the  battle  ended  on 
the  3rd  of  July,  as  stated  by  the  one,  or  not  until 
he  stood  upon  the  battle-field  on  the  19th  of  Novem- 
ber, as  asserted  by  the  other  ?  This  is  a  question 
that  we  leave  for  the  Illinois  clergymen  themselves 
to  decide. 

6.  "  When  he  pronounced  his  matchless  oration  on 


88  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

the  chief  battle-field  of  the  war,  he  gave  expression 
to  the  resolve  that  *  this  nation,  under  God,  should 
have  a  new  birth  of  freedom.'  " 

This  simple  Deistic  phrase,  "  under  God,"  is  the 
only  utterance  of  a  religious  character  to  be  found  in 
that  oration.  When  this  speech  was  delivered,  Lin- 
coln, it  is  claimed,  had  experienced  a  change  of  heart, 
and  consecrated  himself  to  Christ.  This  address 
furnishes  an  overwhelming  refutation  of  the  claim. 
At  the  dedication  of  a  cemetery,  surrounded  by 
thousands  of  graves,  he  ignores  Christianity,  and 
even  the  doctrine  of  immortality. 

6.  "  And  when  he  wrote  his  last  Inaugural  Ad- 
dress, he  gave  to  it  the  lofty  tone  of  an  old  Hebrew 
psalm." 

This  is  true  ;  and  it  is  likewise  true  that  in  that 
document  he  made  no  more  reference  to  Christianity 
than  did  the  Hebrew  psalmist  who  lived  and  wrote 
a  thousand  years  before  it  had  its  birth. 

The  "  Lincoln  Memorial  Album,"  in  which  Dr. 
Barrows's  article  appears,  contains  the  offerings  of 
two  hundred  contributors,  twenty  of  them  divines, 
and  among  them  Lyman  Abbot,  Dr.  Bellows,  Theo- 
dore L.  Cujler,  Robert  Collyer,  Bishop  Coxe,  Dr. 
Crosby,  Bishop  Haven,  Philip  Schaaf,  and  Bishop 
Simpson.  The  work  is  prefaced  with  a  biographical 
sketch  of  Lincoln,  written  by  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  in 
which  he  makes  substantially  the  same  statements 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  89 

regarding  Lincoln's  belief  as  those  made  in  his 
**Life  of  Lincoln."  Aside  from  this,  Dr.  Barrows  is 
the  only  one  of  these  two  hundred  memorialists  who 
ventures  to  affirm  that  Lincoln  was  a  Christian. 

The  story  of  Dr.  Yinton,  too  absurd  to  demand 
serious  consideration — apparently  too  incredible  for 
belief — is  yet  believed  by  thousands.  When  such 
fabulous  tales  are  told  by  men  who  are  looked  upon 
as  the  exponents  of  morality,  and  published  in  papers 
and  periodicals  that  are  presumed  to  be  the  repos- 
itories only  of  truth,  it  is  not  strange  that  such 
stories  as  Washington's  Praying  at  Valley  Forge, 
Ethan  Allen  and  His  Daughter,  Don't  Unchain  the 
Tiger,  Paine's  Becanting,  and  a  thousand  and  one 
other  pious  fictions  of  a  similar  character,  have 
gained  popular  credence.  To  read  the  fabrications 
of  this  class  pertaining  to  Lincoln  alone,  one  would 
suppose  that  this  astute  statesman,  this  Chief 
Magistrate  of  a  great  nation,  this  Commander-in- 
Chief  of  two  millions  of  soldiers,  engaged  in  the  most 
stupendous  civil  conflict  the  world  has  known,  occu- 
pied the  greater  portion  of  his  time  in  studying  the 
Scriptures,  poring  over  doctrinal  sermons,  partici- 
pating in  prayer-meetings  led  by  pious  nurses,  and 
weeping  upon  the  necks  of  clerical  visitors. 

Bishop  Simpson's  remarks  have  been  presented, 
not  because  the}'  furnish  any  proofs  of  Lincoln's  re- 
puted Christianity,  but  because  he  was  one  of  the 


90  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

clergymen  who  officiated  at  Lincoln's  funeral,  and 
because  bis  words  ou  that  occasion  have  been  cited 
in  support  of  this  claim.  But  he  does  not  assert 
that  Lincoln  was  a  Christian.  He  simply  testifies  tO' 
his  belief  and  trust  in  God — to  his  Deistio  faith — 
nothing  more. 

I  am  aware  that  in  some  of  the  published  reports 
of  his  address  there  have  been  interpolated  words 
intended  to  convey  the  idea  that  Lincoln  accepted 
Christ.  Bishop  Simpson,  I  am  sure,  never  autho- 
rized the  insertion  of  these  words.  They  express  a 
claim  he  never  made — a  claim  he  certainly  did  not 
make  on  the  day  of  Lincoln's  interment. 

In  his  funeral  address  at  "Washington,  Dr.  "Gurley 
did  not  affirm  that  Lincoln  was  a  Christian,  or  that 
he  was  intending  to  make  a  profession  of  religion. 
Bishop  Simpson,  in  his  oration  at  Springfield,  made 
no  mention  of  these  claims,  and  Dr.  Gurley  and 
Bisliop  Simpson  are  known  to  have  held  a  consulta- 
tion before  that  oration  was  delivered. 

This  silence  is  conclusive  evidence  that  these  men 
knew  that  Lincoln  was  an  unbeliever.  Commenting 
on  this  notable  omission,  Mr.  Herndon  says : 

"  Bishop  Simpson  delivered  the  funeral  oration, 
and  in  that  oration  there  was  not  one  word  about 
Mr.  Lincoln's  Christianity.  Bishop  Simpson  was 
Lincoln's  friend ;  Dr.  Gurley  was  Lincoln's  pastor 
in  Washington.    Now  these  men  knew,  or  had  reason 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTUN?  91 

to  know,  Lincoln's  religion,  and  the  world  would 
have  heard  of  his  Christianity  on  the  day  of  his 
burial  if  it  had  been  known.  But  Simpson  and 
Gurley  are  silent — dumb  before  the  Christian  world." 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  and  exhaustive  tributes 
ever  paid  to  Lincoln,  aside  from  the  matchless 
tribute  paid  by  Colonel  Ingersoll,  is  that  from  the 
pen  of  BishojD  Simpson  which  appears  in  the  "  Lin- 
coln Memorial  Album."  In  this  tribute  he  does  not 
make  even  the  remotest  allusion  to  Lincoln's  religious 
belief.  He  appears  to  have  heeded  the  advice  ten- 
dered a  less  discreet  Christian  writer,  and  recognized 
the  fact  that,  from  his  standpoint,  the  less  said  about 
the  subject  the  better.  Had  all  Christians  acted  as 
wisely  and  as  honorably  in  this  matter  as  Bishop 
Simpson,  this  controversy  about  Lincoln's  religion 
would  never  have  arisen. 

I  have  now  reviewed  the  testimony  of  these  wit- 
nesses. Tested  in  the  crucible  of  honest  criticism, 
little  remains  of  their  statements  save  the  dross  of 
falsehood  and  error.  I  may  be  charged  with  unjust 
severity  toward  these  witnesses,  nearly  all  of  whom 
are  men  of  recognized  respectability  and  distinction. 
But  a  majority  of  them  have  testified  to  what  they 
know  to  be  false,  and  against  those  who  knowingly 
bear  false  witness  no  censure  can  be  too  severe. 
Thousands  of  Christian  men  and  women,  misled  by 
this  false  testimony,  honestly  believe  and  contend 


92  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

that  Lincoln  was  a  Christian.  Against  these  I  have 
not  an  unkind  word  to  offer.  But  I  am  resolved  to 
disabuse  their  minds  of  this  erroneous  belief.  Pain- 
ful as  the  birth  of  an  unwelcome  idea  is,  they  shall 
know  the  truth. 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  93 


CHAPTER   V. 

TESTIMONY  OF    HON.   WILLIAM    H.    HERNDON — PUBLISHED 
TESTIMONY. 

Hern  don's  Associatiou  with  Lincoln — Character — Writings — Com- 
petency as  a  Witness — Tlie  Abbott  Letter — Contribution  to  the  Liberal 
Age — Article  in  the  Truth  Seeker — Herudon's  "  Life  of  Lincoln." 

Having  presented  and  reviewed  the  evidence  in 
behalf  of  the  affirmative  of  this  question,  the  evi- 
dence in  support  of  the  negative  will  next  be  given, 
and  in  consideration  of  his  long  and  intimate  asso- 
ciation with  Lincoln,  and  the  character  and  com- 
prehensiveness of  his  testimony,  the  first  to  testify 
will  be  Hon.  Wm.  H.  Herndon,  of  Springfield,  111. 

In  1843,  Lincoln  formed  a  partnership  with  Mr. 
Herndon  iu  the  law  business,  which  existed  for  a 
period  of  twenty-two  years,  and  was  only  dissolved 
by  the  bullet  of  the  assassin.  The  strong  attach- 
ment that  these  men  had  for  each  other  is  illustrated 
in  the  following  touching  incident,  related  in  "  The 
Everyday  Life  of  Lincoln :" 

"  When  he  was  about  to  leave  for  Washington,  lie 
went  to  the  dingy  little  law  office  which  had  shel- 
tered his  saddest  hours.     He  sat  down  on  the  couch 


94  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

and  said  to  his  law-partner,  Herndon,  '  Billy,  you 
and  I  have  been  together  more  than  twenty  years, 
and  have  never  "  passed  a  word."  Will  you  let  my 
name  stay  on  the  old  sign  till  I  come  back  from 
Washington  ?'  The  tears  started  to  Mr.  Herndon's 
eyes.  He  put  out  his  hand.  *  Mr.  Lincoln,'  said  he, 
*  I  will  never  have  any  other  partner  while  you  live  ;' 
and  to  the  day  of  the  assassination  all  the  doings  of 
the  firm  were  in  the  name  of  *  Lincoln  &  Herndon ' " 
(Everyday  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  377). 

Mr.  Herndon  died  in  1891.  Though  younger  than 
his  illustrious  partner,  he  was  at  the  time  of  his 
death  well  advanced  in  years.  He  had  retired  from 
the  active  practice  of  law,  and  resided  at  his  country 
home  near  Springfield.  He  was  noted  for  his  rugged 
honesty,  for  his  broad  philanthropy,  and  for  his 
strong  and  original  mental  qualities.  He  was  one  of 
the  pioneers  in  the  antislavery  movement,  and  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  Republican  party.  He  was 
the  Republican  nominee  for  Presidential  Elector  of 
the  Springfield  district  when  the  first  Republican 
ticket,  Fremont  and  Dayton,  was  placed  in  the  field. 
Governor  Bissell,  Governor  Tates  and  Governor 
Oglesby  successively  appointed  him  Bank  Commis- 
sioner of  Illinois.  His  talents  were  recognized  and 
his  friendship  was  sought  by  many  of  the  most  emi- 
nent men  in  the  nation.  Garrison  stopped  for  weeks 
at  his  home ;  Theodore  Parker  was  his  guest ;  Hor- 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  95 

ace  Greeley  was  his  devoted  friend,  and  Charles 
Sumner  was  his  friend  and  correspondent. 

When  Lincoln  and  Herndon  were  first  thrown  into 
each  other's  society,  Lincoln's  mind  was  dwelling,  for 
the  most  part,  in  the  theological  (or  rather  anti-theo- 
logical) world,  while  Herndon's  found  a  most  conge- 
nial habitation  in  the  world  of  politics.  They  were 
destined  to  exercise  an  important  influence  in  mold- 
ing each  other's  characters.  Herndon  was  indebted 
chiefly  to  Lincoln  for  the  religious  views  he  enter- 
tained, while  Lincoln  was  indebted  mainly  to  JHern- 
don  for  the  political  principles  which  he  finally 
espoused.  Colonel  Lamon,  in  his  "  Life  of  Lincoln," 
gives  the  following  truthful  sketch  of  the  character 
of  the  man  whom  Lincoln  made  a  Deist,  and  who  in 
turn  made  an  Abolitionist  of  Lincoln.  Alluding  to 
the  Abolitionists  of  Illinois,  as  they  appeared  in 
1854,  when  Lincoln  took  his  stand  on  the  side  of 
freedom,  Lamon  says : 

"  Chief  among  them  was  Owen  Lovejoy ;  and 
second  to  him,  if  second  to  any,  was  William  H. 
Herndon.  But  the  position  of  this  latter  gentleman 
was  one  of  singular  embarrassment.  According  to 
himself,  he  was  an  Abolitionist  *  some  time  before 
he  was  born,'  and  hitherto  he  had  made  his  '  calling 
and  election  sure '  by  ever}'  word  and  act  of  a  life 
devoted  to  political  philanthropy  and  disinterested 
political  labors.    While  the  two  great  national  parties 


96  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  : 

divided  the  suffrages  of  the  people,  North  and  South, 
everything  in  his  eyes  vr&s  dead.  He  detested  the 
bargains  by  which  those  parties  were  in  the  habit  of 
composing  sectional  troubles,  and  sacrificing  the 
principle  of  freedom.  When  the  Whig  party  paid 
Its  breath  to  time,  he  looked  upon  its  last  agonies  as 
but  another  instance  of  divine  retribution.  He  had 
no  patience  with  time-servers,  and  regarded  with 
indignant  contempt  the  policy  which  would  postpone 
the  natural  riglits  of  an  enslaved  race  to  the  success 
of  parties  and  politicians.  He  stood  by  at  the  sacri- 
fice of  the  Whig  party  in  Illinois  with  the  spirit  of 
Paul  when  he  held  the  clothes  of  them  that  stoned 
Stephen.  He  believed  it  was  for  the  best,  and  hoped 
to  see  a  new  party  rise  in  its  place,  great  in  the 
fervor  of  its  faith,  and  animated  by  the  spirit  of 
Wilberforce,  Garrison,  and  the  Lovejoys.  He  was  a 
fierce  zealot,  and  gloried  proudly  in  his  title  of 
'  fanatic  ;'  for  it  was  his  conviction  that  fanatics  were 
at  all  times  the  salt  of  the  earth,  with  power  to  save 
it  from  the  blight  that  follows  the  wickedness  of 
men.  He  believed  in  a  God,  but  it  was  the  God  of 
Nature— the  God  of  Socrates  and  Plato,  as  well  as 
the  God  of  Jacob.  He  believed  in  a  Bible,  but  it 
was  the  open  scroll  of  the  universe  ;  and  in  a  religion 
clear  and  well  defined,  but  it  was  a  religion  that 
scorned  what  he  deemed  the  narrow  slavery  of  verbal 
inspiration.     Hot-blooded,  impulsive,  brave,  morally 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  97 

aud  physically,  careless  of  consequences  wlien  moved 
by  a  sense  of  individual  duty,  he  was  the  very  man 
to  receive  into  his  inmost  heart  the  precepts  of  Mr. 
Seward's  '  higher  law ' "  (Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  350, 
351). 

His  literary  abilities,  both  as  a  speaker  and  as  a 
writer,  were  of  a  higli  order.  He  had  written  a 
meritorious  work  on  Mental  Philosophy,  and  a  "  Life 
of  Lincoln,"  which  had  just  been  published  when  he 
died.  In  addition  to  numerous  addresses  upon  his- 
torical, economical,  and  other  subjects  he  prepared 
and  delivered  several  able  and  interesting  lectures 
on  Lincoln  :  "  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Ann  Kutledge," 
a  beautiful  and  touching  representation  of  that 
pathetic  and  romantic  love  episode  which  forms  one 
of  the  saddest  chapters  in  Lincoln's  history  ;  "  The 
Analysis  of  Lincoln's  Character,"  which  appears  in 
the  "Lincoln  Memorial  Album,"  and  "Lincoln's 
Eeligion,"  which  was  published  in  the  State  Register, 
of  Springfield,  111. 

Carpenter,  and  in  fact  nearly  every  writer  on  Lin- 
coln, has  made  free  use  of  Herndon's  writings. 
Carpenter  declares  that  his  "  masterly  *  Analysis  of 
Lincoln's  Character '  has  scarcely  an  equal  in  the 
annals  of  biographical  literature."  Both  Holland 
and  Lamon  acknowledge  that  they  were  more 
deeply  indebted  to  him  in  the  preparation  of  their 
respective  works  than  to  any  other   person.     The 


98  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

Petersburg  Democrat,  publislied  in  Menard  county, 
where  Lincoln  spent  the  first  years  of  his  manhood, 
says:  "Mr.  Herndon  was  the  law  partner  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  from  1843  to  1860,  and  knew  his  inner  life 
better  than  any  other  man,"  The  Sangamon  county 
Monitor,  of  Springfield,  where  Lincoln  lived  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  says:  "Herndon  knew  Lin- 
coln's views  better  than  any  man  in  America." 
Judge  David  Davis,  the  lifelong  friend  of  Lincoln, 
in  whose  court  both  Lincoln  and  Herndon  practiced 
for  years,  declared  that  Herndon  knew  more  about 
Lincoln's  religion  than  any  other  man. 

In  this  chapter  will  be  reproduced  the  evidence  of 
Mr.  Herndon  that  has  already  been  made  public. 

The  first  elaborate  exposition  of  Lincoln's  Free- 
thought  views  was  made  in  1870,  in  what  is  known 
as  the  "  Abbott  Letter,"  an  article  which  Mr.  Hern- 
don by  request  contributed  to  the  Index,  a  paper 
then  published  at  Toledo,  O.,  and  edited  by  Francis 
E.  Abbott.  The  article  was  extensively  copied  and 
commented  upon,  and  produced  a  profound  sensa- 
tion in  the  religious  world,  which,  to  a  great  extent, 
had  been  misled  by  such  writers  as  Holland.  The 
first  and  more  important  part  of  Mr.  Herndon's 
article  will  now  be  presented  : 

"  Mr.  Abbott  :  Some  time  since  I  promised  you 
that  I  would  send  a  letter  in  relation  to  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's religion.     I  do  so  now.     Before  entering  on 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  99 

that  question,  one  or  two  preliminary  remarks  will 
help  us  to  understand  why  he  disagreed  with  the 
Christian  world  in  its  principles  as  well  as  in  its 
theology.  In  the  first  place,  Mr.  Lincoln's  mind 
was  a  purely  logical  mind ;  secondly,  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  a  purely  practical  man.  He  had  no  fanc}^  or 
imagination,  and  not  much  emotion.  He  was  a  real- 
ist as  opposed  to  an  idealist.  As  a  general  rule,  it 
is  true  that  a  purely  logical  mind  has  not  much 
hope,  if  it  ever  has  faith  in  the  unseen  and  unknown. 
Mr.  Lincoln  had  not  much  hope  and  no  faith  in 
things  that  lie  outside  of  the  domain  of  demonstra- 
tion ;  he  was  so  constituted,  so  organized,  that  he 
could  believe  nothing  unless  his  senses  or  logic 
could  reach  it.  I  have  often  read  to  him  a  law 
point,  a  decision,  or  something  I  fancied.  He  could 
not  understand  it  until  he  took  the  book  out  of  my 
hand,  and  read  the  thing  for  himself.  He  was  ter- 
ribly, vexatiously  skeptical.  He  could  scarcely  un- 
derstand anything,  unless  he  had  time  and  place 
fixed  in  his  mind. 

"  I  became  acquainted  with  Mr.  Lincoln  in  1834, 
and  I  think  I  knew  him  well  to  the  day  of  his  death. 
His  mind,  when  a  boy  in  Kentucky,  showed  a  certain 
gloom,  an  unsocial  nature,  a  peculiar  abstractedness, 
a  bold  and  daring  skepticism.  In  Indiana,  from  1817 
to  1830,  it  manifested  the  same  qualities  or  attributes 
as  in  Kentucky  :  it  only  intensified,  developed  itself, 


100  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

along  those  lines  in  Indiana.     He  came  to  Illinois  in 
1830,  and,  after  some  little  roving,  settled  in  New 
Salem,  now  in  Menard  county  and  state  of  Illinois. 
This  village  lies  about  twenty  miles  northwest  of 
this  city.     It  was  here  that  Mr.  Lincoln  became  ac- 
quainted with  a  class  of  men  the  world  never  saw 
the  like  of  before  or  since.     They  were  large  men — 
large  in  body  and  large  in  mind ;  hard  to  whip  and 
never  to  be  fooled.     They  were  a  bold,  daring,  and 
reckless  sort  of  men  ;  they  were  men  of  their  own 
minds — believed  what  was  demonstrable  ;  were  men 
of  great  common  sense.     With  these  men  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was  thrown ;  with  them  he  lived,  and  with  them 
he  moved  and  almost  had  his  being.     They  were 
skeptics  all — scoffers  some.   These  scoffers  were  good 
men,  and  their  scoffs  were  protests  against  theology 
— loud  protests  against  the  follies  of  Christianity. 
They  had  never  heard  of  Theism  and  the  newer  and 
better  religious  thoughts  of  this  age.     Hence,  being 
natural  skeptics,  and  being  bold,  brave  men,  they 
uttered  their  thoughts  freely.     They  declared  that 
Jesus  was  an  illegitimate  child.     They  were  on  all 
occasions,  when  opportunity  offered,  debating  the 
various  questions  of  Christianity  among  themselves. 
They  took  their  stand  on  common  sense  and  on  their 
own  souls  ;  and,  though  their  arguments  were  rude 
and  rough,  no  man  could  overthrow  their  homely 
logic.    They  riddled  all  divines,  and  not  unfrequently 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  101 

made  them  skeptics,  disbelievers  as  bad  as  them- 
selves. They  were  a  jovial,  healthful,  generous,  so- 
cial, true,  and  manly  set  of  people. 

"  It  was  here  and  among  these  people  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  thrown.  About  the  year  1834  he 
chanced  to  come  across  Volney's  '  Ruins  '  and  some 
of  Paine's  theological  works.  He  at  once  seized 
hold  of  them,  and  assimilated  them  into  his  own 
being.  Volney  and  Paine  became  a  part  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln from  1834  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

"  In  1835  he  wrote  out  a  small  work  on  Infidelity, 
and  intended  to  have  it  published.  This  book  was 
an  attack  upon  the  whole  grounds  of  Christianity, 
and  especially  was  it  an  attack  upon  the  idea  that 
Jesus  was  the  Christ,  the  true  and  only-begotten  son 
of  God,  as  the  Christian  world  contends.  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was  at  that  time  in  New  Salem,  keeping  store 
for  Mr.  Samuel  Hill,  a  merchant  and  postmaster  of 
that  place.  Lincoln  and  Hill  were  very  friendly. 
Hill,  I  think,  was  a  skeptic  at  this  time.  Lincoln, 
one  day  after  the  book  was  finished,  read  it  to  Mr. 
Hill,  his  good  friend.  Hill  tried  to  persuade  him 
not  to  make  it  public,  not  to  publish  it.  Hill  at  that 
time  saw  in  Mr.  Lincoln  a  rising  man,  and  wished 
him  success.  Lincoln  refused  to  destroy  it — said  it 
should  be  published.  Hill  swore  it  should  never 
see  light  of  day.  He  had  an  eye  on  Lincoln's 
popularity — his  present  and  future  success  ;  and  be- 


102  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  I 

lieving  that  if  the  book  was  published  it  would  kill 
Lincoln  forever,  he  snatched  it  from  Lincoln's  hand 
when  Lincoln  was  not  expecting  it,  and  ran  it  into  an 
old-fashioned  tinplate  stove,  heated  as  hot  as  a 
furnace ;  and  so  Lincoln's  book  went  up  to  the 
clouds  in  smoke.  It  is  confessed  bj  all  who  heard 
parts  of  it  that  it  was  at  once  able  and  eloquent ; 
and,  if  I  maj  judge  of  it  from  Mr.  Lincoln's  subse- 
quent ideas  and  opinions,  often  expressed  to  me  and 
to  others  in  my  presence,  it  was  able,  strong,  plain, 
and  fair.  His  argument  was  grounded  on  the 
internal  mistakes  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
and  on  reason  and  on  the  experiences  and  observa- 
tions of  men.  The  criticisms  from  internal  defects 
were  sharp,  strong,  and  manly. 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  moved  to  this  city  in  1837,  and  here 
became  acquainted  with  various  men  of  his  own  way 
of  thinking.  At  that  time  they  called  themselves 
Freethinkers,  or  free  thinking  men.  I  remember  all 
these  things  distinctly ;  for  I  was  with  them,  heard 
them,  and  was  one  of  them.  Mr.  Lincoln  here  found 
other  works — Hume,  Gibbon,  and  others — and  drank 
them  in.  He  made  no  secret  of  his  views  ;  no  con- 
cealment of  his  religion.  He  boldly  avowed  himself 
an  Infidel. 

"When  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  candidate  for  our 
Legislature,  he  was  accused  of  being  an  Infidel  and 
of  having  said  that  Jesus  Christ  was  an  illegitimate 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  103 

child.  He  never  denied  his  opinions  nor  flinched 
from  his  religious  views.  He  was  a  true  man,  and 
yet  it  may  be  truthfully  said  that  in  1837  his  religion 
was  low  indeed.  In  his  moments  of  gloom  he  would 
doubt,  if  he  did  not  sometimes  deny,  God. 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  ran  for  Congress  against  the  Rev. 
Peter  Cartwright  in  the  year  1846.  In  that  contest 
he  was  accused  of  being  an  Infidel,  if  not  an  Atheist. 
He  never  denied  the  charge — would  not — '  would  die 
first.'  In  the  first  place,  because  he  knew  it  could 
and  would  be  proved  on  him ;  and  in  the  second 
place,  he  was  too  true  to  his  own  convictions,  to  his 
own  soul,  to  deny  it. 

"  When  Mr.  Lincoln  left  this  city  for  Washington, 
I  knew  he  had  undergone  no  change  in  his  religious 
opinions  or  views.  He  held  many  of  the  Christian 
ideas  in  abhorrence,  and  among  them  there  was  this 
one,  namely,  that  God  would  forgive  the  sinner  for  a 
violation  of  his  laws.  Lincoln  maintained  that  God 
could  not  forgive  ;  that  punishment  has  to  follow  the 
sin  ;  that  Christianity  was  wrong  in  teaching  for- 
giveness. 

"From  what  I  know  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  from 
what  I  have  heard  and  verily  believe,  I  can  say,  first, 
that  he  did  not  believe  in  a  special  creation,  his  idea 
being  that  all  creation  was  an  evolution  under  law ; 
secondly,  that  he  did  not  believe  that  the  Bible  was 
a  special  revelation  from  God,  as  the  Christian  world 


104  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

contends  ;  thirdly,  he  did  not  believe  in  miracles  as 
understood  bv  Christians ;  fourthly,  he  believed  in 
universal  inspiration  and  miracles  under  law  ;  fifthly, 
he  did  not  believe  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ,  the  son 
of  God,  as  the  Christian  church  contends  ;  sixthly, 
he  believed  that  all  things,  both  matter  and  mind, 
were  governed  by  laws,  universal,  absolute,  and 
eternal.  All  his  speeches  and  rema,rks  in  Washing- 
ton conclusively  prove  this.  Law  was  to  Lincoln 
everything,  and  special  interferences,  shams  and 
delusions." 

In  1874  Mr.  Herndon  delivered  in  Springfield  a 
lecture  on  "  Lincoln's  Religion."  It  was  a  reply  to 
Reed's  lecture,  and  was  published  in  the  State  Beg- 
ister,  of  Springfield.  In  this  lecture  he  reaffirms  the 
statements  made  in  the  "  Abbott  Letter,"  supports 
them  with  substantial  arguments  and  proofs,  and 
completely  overthrows  the  claims  advanced  by  Reed. 
From  it  I  quote  the  following : 

"  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  when  any  man  by  his 
genius,  good  fortune,  or  otherwise  rises  to  public 
notice  and  to  fame,  it  does  not  make  much  differ- 
ence what  life  he  has  led,  that  the  whole  Christian 
world  claims  him  as  a  Christian,  to  be  forever  held 
up  to  view  as  a  hero  and  a  saint  during  all  the  com- 
ing ages,  just  as  if  religion  would  die  out  of  the  soul 
of  man  unless  the  great  dead  be  canonized  as  a 
model  Christian.     This  is  a  species  of  hero  or  saint 


;/AS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  105 

worship.  Lincoln  they  are  determined  ^o  enthrone 
among  the  saints,  to  be  forever  worshiped  as  such." 

"  I  believe  that  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  late  in  life 
become  a  firm  believer  in  the  Christian  religion. 
What!  Mr.  Lincoln  discard  his  logical  faculties  and 
reason  with  his  heart  ?  What !  Mr.  Lincoln  believe 
that  Jesus  was  the  Christ  of  God,  the  true  and  only 
begotten  son  of  him,  as  the  Christian  creed  contends  ? 
What !  Mr.  Lincoln  believe  that  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  of  special  divine  authority,  and  fully  and 
infallibly  inspired,  as  the  Christian  contends? 
What !  Mr.  Lincoln  abandon  his  lifelong  ideas  of 
universal,  eternal  and  absolute  laws  and  contend 
that  the  New  Testament  is  any  more  inspired  than 
Homer's  poems,  than  Milton's  *  Paradise  Lost,'  than 
Shakspere,  than  his  own  eloquent  and  inspired 
oration  at  Gettysburg  ?  What!  Mr.  Lincoln  believe 
that  the  great  Creator  had  connection  through  the 
form  and  instrumentality  of  a  shadow  with  a  Jewish 
girl  ?  Blasphemy !  These  things  must  be  believed 
and  acknowledged  in  order  to  be  a  Christian." 

"  One  word  concerning  this  discussion  about  Mr. 
Lincoln's  religious  views.  It  is  important  in  this : 
1.  It  settles  a  historic  fact.  2.  It  makes  it  possible 
to  write  a  true  history  of  a  man  free  from  the  fear  of 
fire  and  stake.  3.  It  assures  the  reading  public 
that  the  life  of  Mr.  Lincoln  will  be  truly  written. 
4  It  will  be  a  warning  forever  to  all  untrue  men, 


106  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

that  the  life  they  have  lived  will  be  held  up  to  view. 
5.  It  should  convince  the  Christian  pulpit  and  press 
that  it  is  impossible  in  this  day  and  generation,  at 
least  in  America,  to  daub  up  sin,  and  make  a  hero 
out  of  a  fool,  a  knave,  or  a  villain,  which  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  not.  Some  true  spirit  will  drag  the  fraud  and 
lie  out  to  the  light  of  day.  6.  Its  tendency  will  be 
to  arrest  and  put  a  stop  to  romantic  biographies. 
And  now  let  it  be  written  in  history,  and  on  Mr. 
Lincoln's  tomb :  '  He  died  an  unbeliever.'  " 

In  January,  1883,  Mr.  Herndon  contributed  an 
article  on  "Lincoln's  Religion"  to  the  Liberal  Age, 
of  Milwaukee.  From  this  article  the  following  ex- 
tracts are  taken  and  submitted : 

"  In  1837,  Mr.  Lincoln  moved  to  the  city  of  Spring- 
field, and  there  came  across  many  people  of  his  own 
belief.  They  called  themselves  at  that  time  Free- 
thinkers. Some  of  these  men  were  highly  educated 
and  polished  gentlemen.  Mr.  Lincoln  read  in  this 
city  Hume,  Gibbon,  and  other  Liberal  books.  He 
was  in  this  city  from  1837  to  1861,  an  Infidel — Free- 
thinker— Liberal — Free  Religionist — of  the  radical 
type." 

"  In  his  philosophy,  he  was  a  realist,  as  opposed 
to  an  idealist ;  he  was  a  sensationalist,  as  opposed  to 
an  intuitionalist ;  and  was  a  materialist  as  opposed 
to  a  spiritualist." 

*'  Some  good  men  and  women  say  that  Mr.  Lincoln 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  107 

was  a  Christian,  because  he  was  a  moral  man.  They 
sa}'  that  he  was  a  rational  Christian,  because  he  loved 
morality.  Do  not  other  people,  who  are  not  Chris- 
tians, love  morality?  Morality  is  not  the  test  of 
Christianity,  by  any  means.  If  it  is  the  test,  then 
all  moral  men,  Atheists,  Agnostics,  Infidels,  Moham- 
medans, Buddhists,  Mormons,  and  the  rest,  are 
Christians.  A  rational  Christian  is  an  anomaly,  an 
impossibility ;  because  when  reason  is  left  free,  it 
demands  proofs — it  relies  on  experience,  observa- 
tion, logic,  nature,  laws.  Why  not  call  Mr.  Lincoln 
a  rational  Buddhist,  a  rational  Mohammedan,  a 
rational  Confucian,  a  rational  Mormon,  for  all  these, 
if  true  to  their  faith,  love  morality." 

"  Did  Mr.  Lincoln  believe  in  prayer  as  a  means  of 
moving  God  ?  It  is  said  to  me  by  Christians,  touch- 
ing his  religion  :  '  Did  not  he,  in  hi^arting  speech 
in  Springfield,  in  1861,  say,  "  I  hope  p^,  my  friends, 
will  pray  that  I  may  receive,"  etc.?'  and  to  which  I 
say,  yes.  In  his  last  Inaugural  he  said  :  *  Fondly 
do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray.'  These  ex- 
pressions are  merely  conventional.  They  do  not 
prove  that  Mr.  Lincoln  believed  that  prayer  is  a 
means  of  moving  God.  ...  He  believed,  as  I 
understood  him,  that  human  prayer  did  the  prayer 
good  ;  that  prayer  was  but  a  drum  beat — the  taps  of 
the  spirit  on  the  living  human  soul,  arousing  it  to  acts 
of  repentance  for  bad  deeds  done,  or  to  inspire  it  to  a 


108  ABE  AH  AM    LINCOLN: 

loftier  and  a  higher  effort  for  a  nobler  and  a  grander 

life." 

"Did  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  his  said  Inaugural,  say: 
'  Both  read  the  same  Word  of  God  T  No,  because 
that  would  be  admitting  revelation.  He  said  :  '  Both 
read  the  same  ^ifek'  Did  Mr.  Lincoln  say :  'Yet 
if  God  wills  that  it  [the  war]  continue  till  all  the 
wealth  piled  by  the  bondman's  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until 
every  drop  of  blood  drawn  by  the  lash  shall  be  paid 
with  another  drawn  by  the  sword,  as  ivas  saidhtj  God 
three  thousand  years  ago  ?'  He  did  not ;  he  was 
cautious,  and  said  :  '  As  loas  said  three  thousand 
"years  ago.'     Jove  never  nods." 

A  little  later  Mr.  Herndon  wrote  an  article  entitled, 
"Abraham  Lincoln's  Religious  Belief,"  which 
appeared  in  the  Truth  Seeker  of  New  York.  From 
this  article  I  (Juote  the  following  passages  : 

"In  1842  I  heard  Mr.  Lincoln  deliver  a  speech 
before  the  Washingtonian  Temperance  Society,  of 
this  city.  ...  He  scored  the  Christians  for  the 
position  they  had  taken.  He  said  in  that  lecture 
this  :  'If  they  [the  Christians]  believe,  as  they  pro- 
fess— that  Omnipotence  condescended  to  take  on 
himself  the  form  of  sinful  man,'  etc.  This  was 
spoken  with  energy.  He  scornfully  and  contempt- 
uously emphasized  the  words  as  they  profess.  The 
rebuke  was  as  much  in  the  manner  of  utterance  as 


WAS    HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  109 

in  the  substance  of  what  was  said.  I  heard  the 
criticisms  of  some  of  the  Christians  that  night. 
They  said  the  speech  was  an  insult  and  an  outrage." 

"  It  is  my  opinion  that  no  man  ever  heard  Mr. 
Lincoln  pray,  in  the  true  evangelical  sense  of  that 
word.  His  philosophy  is  against  all  human  prayer, 
as  a  means  of  reversing  God's  decrees." 

''  He  has  told  me  often  that  there  was  no  freedom 
in  the  human  will,  and  no  punishment  beyond  this 
world.  He  denied  God's  higher  law,  and  wrote  on 
the  margin  of  a  newspaper  to  his  friends  in  the 
Chicago  convention  in  1860,  this  :  '  Lincoln  agrees 
with  Seward  in  his  irrepressible-conflict  idea ;  but 
he  is  opposed  to  Seward's  higher  law.^  This  paper 
was  handed  to  Judge  Davis,  Judge  Logan,  and  other 
friends." 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  and  a  minister,  whose  name  is  kept 
in  the  dark,  had  a  conversation  about  religion.  It  ap- 
pears that  Mr.  Lincoln  said  that  when  his  son — bone 
of  his  bone,  flesh  of  his  flesh,  and  blood  of  his  own 
heart — died,  though  a  severe  affliction,  it  did  not 
arouse  him  to  think  of  Christ ;  but  when  he  saw  the 
graves  of  so  many  soldiers — strangers  to  him —  . 
.  .  that  sad  sight  aroused  him  to  love  Jesus.  .  , 
.  It  is  a  fine  thing  for  the  reputation  of  the  '  Illinois 
Clergyman  '  that  his  name  is  to  the  world  unknown. 
It  is  a  most  heartless  thing,  this  supposed  conversa- 
tion of  Lincoln  with  the  Illinois  clergyman.     What  1 


110  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

Lincoln  feel  more  for  the  graves  of  strangers  than 
for  the  death  of  his  once  living,  loving,  and  lovable 
son,  now  dead,  moldering  to  ashes  in  the  silent 
tomb !  The  charge  is  barbarous.  To  make  Lincoln 
a  lover  of  Jesus,  whom  he  once  ridiculed,  this 
minister  makes  him  a  savage." 

"  I  wish  to  give  an  illustration  of  the  uncertainty 
and  unreliability  of  those  loose  things  that  tloat 
around  in  the  newspapers  of  the  day,  and  how  liable 
things  are  to  be  inaccurate — so  made  even  by  the 
best  of  men.  Mr.  Lincoln  on  the  morning  he  started 
for  Washington  to  take  the  oath  of  office,  and  be  in- 
augurated President  of  this  great  Republic,  gave  a 
short  farewell  address  to  his  old  friends.  It  was 
eloquent  and  touching.  That  speech  is  copied  in 
Holland's  '  Life  of  Lincoln,'  in  Arnold's  *  Lincoln 
and  Slavery,'  and  in  Lamon's  *  Life  of  Lincoln,'  and 
no  two  are  exactly  alike.  If  it  is  hard  to  get  the 
exact  truth  on  such  an  occasion  as  this,  how  impos- 
sible is  it  to  get  at  Mr.  Lincoln's  sayings  which  have 
been  written  out  by  men  weeks  and  months  after 
what  he  did  say  have  passed  by !  All  these  loose 
and  foolish  things  that  Mr.  Lincoln  is  supposed  to 
have  said  are  like  the  cords  of  driftwood,  floating  on 
the  bosom  of  the  great  Mississippi,  down  to  the 
great  gulf  of — Forgetfuluess.     Let  them  go." 

Herndon's  "  Life  of  Lincoln,"  is  a  most  important 
contribution     to    biographical    literature.     It    will 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  Ill 

enable  the  present  and  future  generations  to  become 
better  acquainted  witli  Lincoln  the  man  than  with 
any  other  prominent  American.  The  autlior  has 
performed  substantially  the  same  work  for  Lincoln 
that  Boswell  performed  for  Johnson ;  only  he  has 
performed  it  more  faithfully.  Political  partisans 
and  religious  bigots  may  condemn  the  work,  but  im- 
partial critics  are  almost  unanimous  in  their  praise 
of  it. 

The  metropolitan  journals  of  Lincoln's  and  Hern- 
don's  own  state  commend  the  work.  The  Chicago 
Tribune  says :  "  All  these  loving  adherents  [of  Lin- 
coln] will  hail  Herndon's  '  Lincoln '  with  unmixed, 
unbounded  joy."  The  Chicago  Times  says  :  "  Hern- 
don's 'Life'  is  the  best  yet  written."  The  Inter 
Ocean  says  that  Herndon  "  knew  more  of  Lincoln's 
inner  life  than  any  living  man."  The  Chicago  Herald 
says :  "  It  enables  one  to  approach  more  closely  to 
the  great  President."  The  Chicago  Evening  Journal 
says :  "  It  presents  a  truthful  and  living  picture  of 
the  greatest  of  Americans." 

The  Nation  thus  refers  to  it :  "  The  sincerity  and 
honesty  of  the  biographer  appear  on  every  page." 
The  New  York  Sun  says  :  "  The  marks  of  unflinch- 
ing veracity  are  patent  in  every  line."  The  Wash- 
ington Capital  says  that  it  places  "  Lincoln  before 
the  world  as  he  really  was."  The  Commercial 
Gazette,  of  Cincinnati,  says:  "He  describes  the  life 


112  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

of  his  friend  Lincoln  just  as  he  saw  it."  The  Morn- 
ing Call,  of  San  Francisco,  affirms  that  it  "  contains 
the  only  true  history  of  the  lamented  President." 
The  St.  Louis  HeimhUc  says :  "  It  will  do  more  to 
shape  the  judgment  of  posterity  on  Mr.  Lincoln's 
character  than  all  that  has  been  written  or  will  be 
hereafter  written." 

In  this  work  Mr.  Herndon  states  in  brief  the  sub- 
stance of  the  articles  already  quoted  in  this  chapter. 
I  quote  as  follows  : 

"  No  man  had  a  stronger  or  firmer  faith  in  Provi- 
dence— God — than  Mr.  Lincoln,  but  the  continued 
use  by  him  late  in  life  of  the  word  God  must  not  be 
interpreted  to  mean  that  he  believed  in  a  per- 
sonal God.  In  1854  he  asked  me  to  erase  the  word 
God  from  a  speech  which  I  had  written  and  read  to 
him  for  criticism,  because  my  language  indicated  a 
personal  God,  whereas  he  insisted  that  no  such  per- 
sonality ever  existed  "  (Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  445,  446). 

"The  world  has  always  insisted  on  making  an 
orthodox  Christian  of  him,  and  to  analyze  his 
language  or  sound  his  belief  is  but  to  break  the  idol* 
(Ibid). 

"  The  benevolence  of  his  impulses,  the  seriousness 
of  his  convictions,  and  the  nobility  of  his  character, 
are  evidences  unimpeachable  that  his  soul  was  ever 
filled  with  the  exalted  purity  and  the  sublime  faith 
of  natural  religion  "  (lb.). 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  113 


CHAPTEB   VI. 

TESTIMONY  OF  HON.  WILLIAM  H.  HERNDON — UNPUBLISHED 
TESTIMONY. 

Extracts  from  Heriidon'3  Letters — The  Books  Lincoln  Read — His 
Philosophy — His  Infidelity — Refutation  of  Christian  Claims — Attempts 
to  Invulidaco  Herudon's  Testimony — Reed's  Calumnies — Viudication. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  has  been  submitted  the 
evidence  of  Mr.  Herndon  that  has  already  been  pub- 
lished. In  this  chapter  will  be  presented  some 
hitherto  unpublished  testimony. 

The  writer  corresponded  with  Mr.  Herndon  for 
many  years.  Much  of  this  correspondence  related  to 
Abraham  Lincoln,  and  no  inconsiderable  portion  of 
it  to  the  subject  under  consideration.  Permission 
was  granted  by  Mr.  Herndon  to  use  such  parts  of 
this  correspondence  as  may  be  deemed  of  value. 
The  limits  of  this  work  preclude  the  presentation  of 
much  that  is  really  interesting,  but  no  apology  is 
needed  for  devoting  space  to  the  following  extracts 
from  his  letters,  written  at  various  intervals  between 
1880  and  1890  : 

"  I  was  the  personal  friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln  from 
1834  to  the  day  of  his  death.     In  184=3  we  entered 


114  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

into  a  partnership  which  was  never  formally  dis- 
solved. When  he  became  unpopular  in  this  Con- 
gressional district  because  of  his  speeches  on  the 
Mexican  war,  I  was  faithful  to  him.  When  he 
espoused  the  antislavery  cause  and  in  the  eyes  of 
most  men  had  hopelessly  ruined  his  political  pros- 
pects, I  stood  by  him,  and  through  the  press  defended 
his  course.  In  these  dark  hours,  by  our  unity  of 
sentiment  and  by  political  ostracism  we  were  driven 
to  a  close  and  enduring  friendship.  You  should  take 
it  for  granted,  then,  that  I  knew  Mr.  Lincoln  well 
During  all  this  time,  from  1834  to  1862,  when  I  last 
saw  him,  he  never  intimated  to  me,  either  directly  or 
indirectly,  that  he  had  changed  his  religious  opinions. 
Had  he  done  so — had  he  let  drop  one  word  or  look 
in  that  direction,  I  should  have  detected  it. 

•'  I  had  an  excellent  private  library,  probably  the 
best  in  the  city  for  admired  books.  To  this  library 
Mr.  Lincoln  had,  as  a  matter  of  course,  full  and  free 
access  at  all  times.  I  purchased  such  books  as 
Locke,  Kant,  Fichte,  Lewes  ;  Sir  Wm.  Hamilton*s 
*  Discussions  on  Philosophy ;'  Spencer's  '  First 
Principles,'  '  Social  Statics,'  etc.;  Buckle's  '  History 
of  Civilization,'  and  Lecky's  '  History  of  Katioual- 
ism.'  I  also  possessed  the  works  of  Parker,  Paine, 
Emerson,  and  Strauss  ;  Gregg's  '  Creed  of  Christen- 
dom,' McNaught  on  Inspiration,  Volney's  '  Ruins,' 
Feuerbach's   'Essence   of   Christianity,'   and   other 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  115 

works  on  Infidelit}-.  Mr.  Lincoln  read  some  of  these 
works.  About  the  year  1843  he  borrowed  '  The  Ves- 
tiges of  Creation'  of  Mr.  James  W.  Keys,  of  this 
city,  and  read  it  carefully.  He  subsequently  read 
the  sixth  edition  of  this  work,  which  I  loaned  him. 
Mr.  Lincoln  had  always  denied  special  creation,  but 
from  his  want  of  education  he  did  not  know  just 
what  to  believe.  He  adopted  the  progressive  and 
development  theory  as  taught  more  or  less  directly 
in  that  work.  He  despised  speculation,  especially 
in  the  metaphysical  world.  He  was  purely  a  pi-ac- 
tical  man.  He  adopted  Locke's  notions  as  his  system 
of  mental  philosophy,  with  some  modifications  to 
suit  his  own  views.  He  held  that  reason  drew  her 
inferences  as  to  law,  etc.,  from  observation,  experi- 
ence, and  reflection  on  the  facts  and  phenomena  of 
nature.  He  was  a  pure  sensationalist,  except  as  above. 
He  was  a  materialist  in  his  philosophy.  He  denied 
dualism,  and    at    times    immortality  in  any  sense. 

"  Before  I  wrote  my  Abbott  letter  I  diligently 
searched  through  Lincoln's  letters,  speeches,  state 
papers,  etc.,  to  find  the  word  immortality,  and  I  could 
not  find  it  anywhere  except  in  his  letter  to  his 
father.  The  word  immortality  appears  but  once  in 
his  writings." 

*'  If  he  had  been  asked  the  plain  question,  '  Do 
you  know  that  a  God  exists?'  he  would  have  said: 
*  I  do  not  know  that  a  God  exists.'  " 


116  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

*'  At  one  moment  of  his  life  I  know  that  he  was  an 
Atheist.  I  was  preparing  a  speech  on  Kansas,  and 
in  it,  like  nearly  all  reformers,  I  invoked  God.  He 
made  me  wipe  out  that  word  and  substitute  the  word 
Maker,  affirming  that  said  Maker  was  a  principle  of 
the  universe.  When  he  went  to  Washington  he  did 
the  same  to  a  friend  there."  - 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  told  me,  over  and  over,  that  man 
has  no  freedom  of  will,  or,  as  he  termed  it,  'l^o  man 
has  a  freedom  of  mind.'  He  was  in  one  sense  a 
fatalist,  and  so  died.  He  believed  that  he  was 
under  the  thumb  of  Providence  (which  to  him  was 
but  another  name  for  fate).  The  longer  he  lived  the 
more  firmly  he  believed  it,  and  hence  his  o.^  invoca- 
tions of  God.  But  these  invocations  are  no  evidence 
to  a  rational  mind  that  he  adopted  the  blasphemy 
that  God  seduced  his  own  daughter,  begat  a  son  on 
purpose  to  have  mankind  kill  him,  in  order  that  he, 
God,  might  become  reconciled  to  his  own  mistakes, 
according  to  the  Christian  view." 

"Lincoln  would  wait  patiently  on  the  flow  and 
logic  of  events.  He  believed  that  conditions  make 
the  man  and  not  man  the  conditions.  Under  his 
own  hand  he  says :  *  I  attempt  no  compliment  to  my 
own  sagacity.  I  claim  not  to  have  controled  events, 
but  confess  plainly  that  events  have  controled  me.* 
He  believed  in  the  supreme  reign  of  law.  This  law 
fated  things,   as   he   would   express   it.     Now,  how 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  117 

could  a  man  be  a  Christian — could  believe  that  Jesus 
Christ  was  God — could  believe  in  the  efl&cacy  of 
prayer — and  entertain  such  a  belief?" 

"He  did  not  believe  in  the  efl&cacy  of  prayer, 
although  he  used  that  conventional  language.  He 
said  in  "Washington,  '  God  has  his  own  purposes.* 
If  God  has  his  own  purposes,  then  prayer  will  not 
change  God's  purposes." 

"  I  have  often  said  to  you,  and  now  repeat  it,  that 
Lincoln  was  a  scientific  Materialist,  i.e.,  that  this 
was  his  tendency  as  opposed  to  the  Spiritualistic 
idea.  Lincoln  always  contended  that  general  and 
universal  laws  ruled  the  universe — always  did — do 
now — and  ever  will.  He  was  an  Agnostic  generally, 
sometimes  an  Atheist." 

*'  That  Mr.  Lincoln  was  an  Infidel  from  1834  to 
1861,  I  know,  and  that  he  remained  one  to  the  day 
of  his  death,  I  honestly  believe.  I  always  under- 
stood that  he  was  an  Infidel,  sometimes  bordering 
on  Atheism.  I  never  saw  any  change  in  the  man, 
and  the  change  could  not  have  escaped  my  observa- 
tion had  it  happened." 

"  Lincoln's  task  was  a  terrible  one.  When  he  took 
the  oath  of  oflfice  his  soul  was  bent  on  securing  har- 
mony among  all  the  people  of  the  North,  and  so  he 
chose  for  his  Cabinet  ofl&cers  his  opponents  for  the 
Presidential  candidacy  in  order  and  as  a  means  of 
creating  a  united  North.     He  let  all  parties,  profes- 


nS  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

sions,  and  callings  have  their  way  where  their  wishes 
did  not  cut  across  his  own.  He  was  apparently 
pliant  and  supple.  He  ruled  men  when  men  thought 
they  were  ruling  him.  He  often  said  to  me  that  the 
Christian  religion  was  a  dangerous  element  to  deal 
with  when  aroused.  He  saw  in  the  Kansas  affairs — 
in  the  whole  history  of  slavery,  in  fact — its  rigor 
and  encroachments,  that  Christianity  was  aroused. 
It  must  be  controled,  and  that  in  the  right  direction. 
Hence  he  bent  to  it,  fed  it,  and  kept  it  within  bounds, 
well  knowing  that  it  would  crush  his  administra- 
tion to  atoms  unless  appeased.  His  oft  and 
oft  invocations  of  God,  his  conversations  with 
Christians,  his  apparent  respect  for  Chris- 
tianity, etc.,  were  all  means  to  an  end.  And 
yet  sometimes  he  showed  that  he  hated  its  nasal 
whines." 

"A  gentleman  of  veracity  in  Washington  told  me 
this  story  and  vouched  for  its  truthfulness  :  '  A  tall 
saddle-faced  man,'  said  he,  '  came  to  Washington  to 
pray  with  Lincoln,  having  declared  this  to  be  his 
intention  at  the  hotel.  About  10  o'clock  a.m.  the 
bloodless  man,  dressed  in  black  with  white  cravat, 
went  to  the  White  House,  sent  in  his  card,  and  was 
admitted.  Lincoln  glanced  at  the  man  and  knew  his 
motives  in  an  instant.  He  said  to  him  angrily : 
"What,  have  you,  too,  come  to  torment  me  with 
your  prayers  ?  "    The  man  was  squelched — said,  "  No, 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  119 

Mr.  Lincoln  " — lied  out  and  out.     Lincoln  spoiled 
those  prayers.' " 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  was  thought  to  be  understood  by 
the  mob.  But  what  a  delusion  I  He  was  one  of  the 
most  reticent  men  that  ever  lived.  All  of  us — Stuart, 
Speed,  Logan,  Matheny,  myself,  and  others,  had  to 
guess  at  much  of  the  man.  He  was  a  mystery  to  the 
world — a  sphinx  to  most  men.  One  peculiarity  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  his  irritability  when  anyone  tried 
to  peep  into  his  own  mind's  laboratory.  Consider- 
ing all  this,  what  can  be  thought  of  the  stories  about 
what  he  is  said  to  have  confided  to  strangers  in 
regard  to  his  religion  ?  '* 

"  Not  one  of  Lincoln's  old  acquaintances  in  this 
city  ever  heard  of  his  conversion  to  Christianity  by 
Dr.  Smith  or  anyone  else.  It  was  never  suggested 
nor  thought  of  here  until  after  his  death." 

"  I  never  saw  him  read  a  second  of  time  in  Dr. 
Smith's  book  on  Infidelity.  He  threw  it  down  upon 
our  table — spit  upon  it  as  it  were — and  never  opened 
it  to  my  knowledge." 

"  My  opinion  is,  from  what  I  have  heard  and  know, 
that  these  men — Gurley  and  Simpson — refused  to  be 
a  party  to  a  fraud  on  the  public  touching  Lincoln's 
religion.  I  think  that  they  understood  each  other 
the  day  that  the  remains  of  Lincoln  were  put  to 
rest." 

"  Holland  came  into  my  office,  in  1865,  and  asked 


120  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

me  this  question  :  '  What  about  Mr.  Lincoln's  Chris- 
tianity ?  '  To  this,  I  replied  :  '  The  less  said  about 
it  the  better.'  Holland  then  said  to  me,  *  Oh,  never 
mind,  I'll  fix  that,'  and  went  over  to  Bateman  and 
had  it  fixed." 

"  Lincoln  never  revealed  to  Judge  Davis,  Judge 
Mathenj,  Joshua  F.  Speed,  Joseph  Gillespie,  nor 
myself  that  he  was  a  Christian,  or  that  he  had  a 
change  of  heart,  or  anything  like  it,  at  any  time. 
Now,  taking  into  consideration  the  fact  that  he  was 
one  of  the  most  non-communicative  of  men — that 
Bateman  was,  as  it  were,  a  mere  stranger  to  him — 
that  Bateman  was  frightened,  excited,  conscience- 
smitten  when  I  approached  him  on  the  subject,  and 
that  in  after  years  he  confessed  to  me  that  his  notes 
in  Holland's  *  Life  of  Lincoln '  ivere  colored — taking 
all  this  into  consideration,  I  say,  can  you  believe 
Bateman's  story  to  be  true  ?  " 

*'  I  see  quoted  frequently  a  supposed  speech  made 
by  Mr.  Lincoln  to  the  colored  people  of  Baltimore, 
on  the  presentation  of  a  Bible  to  him.  This  sup- 
posed speech  contains  the  following  :  *  All  the  good 
from  the  Savior  of  the  world  is  communicated  to  us 
through  this  book.'  This  idea  is  false  and  foolish. 
What  becomes  of  nine-tenths  of  the  life  of  Jesus  of 
which  we  have  no  history — nine-tenths  of  the  great 
facts  of  this  grand  man's  life  not  recorded  in  this 
book?    Mr.    Lincoln    was    full    and   exact  in    his 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  121 

language.  He  never  used  the  word  Savior,  unless  in 
a  conventional  sense  ;  in  fact,  he  never  used  the  word 
at  all.  Again,  he  is  made  to  say  :  '  But  for  this  book 
we  could  not  know  right  from  wrong.'  The  lowest 
organized  life,  I  was  about  to  say,  knows  right  from 
wrong  in  its  particular  sphere.  Every  good  dog  that 
comes  into  possession  of  a  bone,  knows  that  that 
bone  belongs  to  him,  and  he  knows  that  it  is  wrong 
for  another  dog  to  rob  him  of  it.  He  protests  with 
bristling  hair  and  glistening  teeth  against  such  dog 
robbery.  It  requires  no  revelation  to  teach  him 
right  from  wrong  in  the  dog  world;  yet  it  requires  a 
special  revelation  from  God  to  teach  us  right  from 
wrong  in  the  human  world.  According  to  this 
speech,  the  dog  has  the  advantage.  But  Mr.  Lincoln 
never  uttered  such  nonsense." 

"  I  do  think  that  anyone  who  knew  Mr.  Lincoln — 
his  history — his  philosophy — his  opinions — and  still 
asserts  that  he  was  a  Christian,  is  an  unbounded 
falsifier.  I  hate  to  speak  thus  plainly,  but  I  cannot 
respect  an  untruthful  man." 

"  Let  me  ask  the  Christian  claimant  a  few  ques- 
tions. Do  you  mean  to  say,  when  you  assert  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  Christian,  that  he  believed  that 
Jesus  was  the  Christ  of  God,  as  the  evangelical 
world  contends  ?  If  so,  where  do  you  get  your 
information  ?  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  a  converted  man  and  that  he  so  declared  ?    If  so. 


122  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

where,  when,  and  before  whom  did  he  declare  or 
reveal  it  ?  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
joined  a  church?  If  so,  what  church  did  he  join, 
and  when  did  he  join  it?  Do  you  mean  to  say  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  secret  Christian,  acting  under  the 
cloak  of  the  devil  to  advance  Christianity  ?  If  so, 
what  is  your  authority  ?  If  you  will  tell  me  when  it 
was  that  the  Creator  caught  with  his  almighty  arms, 
Abraham,  and  held  him  fast  while  he  poured  the  oil 
of  grace  on  his  rebellious  soul,  then  I  will  know 
when  it  was  that  he  was  converted  from  his  Infidel 
views  to  Christianity." 

"  The  best  evidence  this  side  of  Lincoln's  own 
written  statement  that  he  was  an  Infidel,  if  not  an 
Atheist,  as  claimed  by  some,  is  the  fact  that  he  never 
mentions  the  name  of  Jesus.  If  he  was  a  Christian 
it  could  be  proved  by  his  letters  and  speeches.  That 
man  is  a  poor  defender  of  a  principle,  of  a  person,  or 
of  a  thing,  who  never  mentions  that  principle,  person, 
or  thing.  I  have  never  seen  the  name  of  Jesus  men- 
tioned by  Mr.  Lincoln." 

•*  Mr.  Lincoln  never  mentioned  the  name  of  Christ 
in  his  letters  and  speeches  as  a  Christian.  I  have 
searched  for  such  evidence,  but  could  not  find  it  I 
have  had  others  search,  but  they  could  not  find  it 
This  dead  silence  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Lincoln  is  over- 
whelming proof  that  he  was  an  unbeliever." 

"While   Lincoln   frequently,   in    a    conventional 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  123 

way,  appeals  to  God,  he  never  appeals  to  Christ  nor 
mentions  him.  I  know  that  he  at  first  maintained 
that  Jesus  was  a  bastard,  and  later  that  he  was  the 
son  of  Joseph  and  not  of  God." 

"  Lincoln  was  not  a  Christian  in  any  sense  other 
than  that  he  lived  a  good  life  and  was  a  noble  man. 
If  a  good  life  constitutes  one  a  Christian,  then  Mill 
and  a  million  other  mon  who  repudiated  and  denied 
Christianity  were  Christians,  for  they  lived  good  and 
noble  lives." 

"  If  Mr.  Lincoln  changed  his  religious  views  he 
owed  it  to  me  to  warn  me,  as  he  above  all  other  men 
caused  me  to  be  an  unbeliever.  He  said  nothing  to 
me,  intimated  nothing  to  me,  either  directly  or  in- 
directly. He  owed  this  debt  to  many  young  men 
whom  he  had  led  astray,  if  astray  the  Christian  calls 
it.  I  know  of  two  young  men  of  promise,  now  dead 
and  gone — gone  into  endless  misery,  according  to 
the  evangelical  creed — caused  by  Mr.  Lincoln's 
teachings.  I  know  some  of  the  living  here,  men 
in  prominent  positions  of  life,  who  were  made  un- 
believers by  him." 

"  One  by  one,  these  apocryphal  stories  go  by  the 
board.  Courageous  and  remorseless  criticism  will 
wipe  out  all  these  things.  There  will  not  be  a 
vestige  of  them  in  fifty  years  to  laugh  at  or  to  weep 
at." 

Mr.  Herndon's  testimony,  even  in  the  absence  of 


124  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN : 

all  other  evidence,  is  conclu3ive.  This  was  recog- 
nized by  the  Christian  claimants  after  the  appear- 
ance of  his  "  Abbott  Letter."  They  employed  various 
measures  to  break  the  force  of  his  testimony  by 
trying  to  induce  him  either  to  retract  or  modify  his 
statements.  But  they  were  not  successful.  He  was 
not  to  be  coaxed,  he  was  not  to  be  purchased,  he 
was  not  to  be  intimidated.  He  had  stated  the  truth 
and  by  the  truth  he  proposed  to  stand.  Foiled  in 
these  efforts,  their  last  resort  was  to  destroy  his 
credibility  as  a  witness  by  destroying  his  character. 
The  most  brazen  falsehoods  were  invented  and  the 
most  cruel  calumnies  circulated  in  order  to  crush 
him.  Some  of  these  stated  that  he  was  a  drunkard, 
others  that  he  was  a  pauper,  and  still  others  that  he 
had  become  insane. 

These  defamatory  statements  were  usually  first 
noticed  in  some  religious  paper  or  periodical.  From 
this  they  were  naturally  copied  into  the  secular 
papers  and  sent  broadcast  over  the  land.  Journalists 
who  had  once  known  Mr.  Herndon,  either  personally 
or  by  reputation,  were  surprised  and  shocked  at  the 
announcements,  and  wrote  articles  like  the  following 
which  appeared  in  a  Kansas  paper  : 

"Bill  Herndon  is  a  pauper  in  Springfield,  111.  He 
was  once  worth  considerable  property.  His  mind 
was  the  most  argumentative  of  any  of  the  old  lawyers 
in   the   state,  and   his   memory  was  extraordinary 


WAS    HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  125 

For  several  years  before  Lincoln  was  nominated  for 
the  Presidency,  Herndon  was  in  some  respects  the 
most  active  member  of  the  firm,  preparing  the 
greatest  number  of  cases  for  trial  and  making  elab- 
orate arguments  in  their  behalf.  It  is  said  that  he 
worked  hard  with  Lincoln  in  preparing  the  memo- 
rable speeches  delivered  by  the  man  who  afterward 
became  President,  during  the  debates  between  Lin- 
coln and  Douglas  in  1858,  and  in  constructing  the 
Cooper  Listitute  address  delivered  by  Lincoln  a 
short  time  before  the  war.  Herndon,  with  all  his 
attainments,  was  a  man  who  now  and  then  went  ou 
a  spree.  This  habit  became  worse  after  Lincoln's 
death,  and,  like  poor  Dick  Yates,  he  went  down  step 
by  step  till  his  old  friends  and  associates  point  to 
him  as  a  common  drunkard." 

I  was  in  Springfield  the  very  week  that  this  article 
was  published,  and  passed  a  day  Avith  Mr.  Herndon 
at  his  home.  I  was  prepared  to  testify,  as  all  his 
neighbors  were,  that  the  charges  it  contained,  to- 
gether with  others  that  were  being  circulated, 
were  false.  I  knew  that  he  still  possessed  a  sound 
and  vigorous  intellect ;  I  knew  that  he  was  in  com- 
fortable circumstances  financially ;  I  knew  that  he 
was  an  earnest  advocate  of  temperance,  and  that  he 
practiced  what  he  preached  ;  in  short,  I  knew  him 
to  be  a  man  of  pure  morals  and  exemplary  character. 
At  the  very  time  that  he  was  declared  to  be  an  in- 


126  ABKAHAM    LINCOLN: 

mate  of  the  insane  asylum,  the  Old  Settlers'  Society 
selected  him  to  examine  and  report  upon  the  correct- 
ness of  the  "  History  of  Sangamon  County,"  which, 
as  it  included  a  history  of  the  capital  of  the  state 
where,  at  one  time  or  another,  had  resided  a  major- 
ity of  Illinois' s  most  gifted  sons,  was  an  important 
work,  and  one  whose  revision  would  not  likely  be 
intrusted  to  a  lunatic.  At  the  very  time  that  he 
was  said  to  be  a  pauper  in  the  county  poorhouse,  he 
was  entertaining  such  distinguished  guests  as 
William  Lloyd  Garrison.  At  the  very  time  that  he 
was  reported  to  be  a  common  drunkard,  his  neigh- 
bors had  just  appointed  him  guardian  of  the  educa- 
tional interests  of  their  children. 

All  efforts  to  trace  these  slanders  to  their  source 
and  discover  their  author  proved  futile  until  1880, 
when  the  writer  of  this  saw  in  an  Ohio  paper  an 
article  on  Lincoln,  in  which  was  quoted  a  portion  of 
a  letter  which  the  contributor  of  the  article  stated 
had  just  been  received  from  the  Rev.  J.  A.  Reed,  of 
Springfield.  It  related  wholly  to  Mr.  Herndon,  and 
did  not  contain  one  fair,  truthful  statement.  In 
thirty  brief  lines  were  concentrated,  in  addition  to 
several  statements  calculated  and  intended  to  de- 
ceive, no  less  than  sixteen  deliberate  falsehoods, 
some  of  them  of  the  most  cruel  and  infamous  char- 
acter. It  was  evident  that  Reed  had  intended  that 
the  substance  of  his  letter  should  be  given  to  the 


WA8   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  127 

public  without  disclosing  its  authorship.  But, 
thanks  to  the  innocent  credulity  and  indiscreetness 
of  the  friend  to  whom  it  was  sent,  the  defamer  was 
discovered  and  exposed.  And  this  sneaking,  cow- 
ardly assassin  was  the  '*  defender  of  Lincoln's  Chris- 
tian faith  !"  Could  the  inanimate  remains  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  have  been  revivified  when  this  eX' 
posure  was  made,  he  would  have  arisen  from  his 
mausoleum  at  Oak  Ridge,  have  come  into  the  city, 
and  have  kicked  this  pretended  "defender,"  this 
base  calumniator  of  his  beloved  friend  and  associ- 
ate, out  of  Springfield. 

The  cause  of  all  the  vituperation  which  for  years 
had  been  heaped  upon  Mr.  Herudon  was  now  appar*- 
ent.  He  had  replied  to  Reed's  lecture,  and  openly, 
honestly,  and  courteously,  but  effectively,  refuted  it ; 
and  because  the  latter  could  not  come  forward  with 
a  successful  rejoinder,  he  was  thus  heartlessly  and 
covertly  plunging  a  dagger  into  the  reputation  of  his 
chivalrous  opponent. 

The  intercession  of  friends  secured  for  the  culprit 
immunity  from  arrest  for  libel,  but  in  the  newspapers 
of  his  city  he  received  such  a  castigation  as  he  will 
not  soon  forget.  The  Daily  Monitor,  in  an  editorial 
replying  to  the  slanders  that  were  being  circulated 
concerning  Mr.  Herndon,  said  : 

"  Mr.  Herndon  is  not  a  pauper,  is  not  a  drunkard  ; 
whisky  did  not  ruin  him,  and,  in  a  word,  the  whole 


i28  ABEAHAM  LINCOLN: 

thing  is  a  lie.  Mr.  Herndon  lives  on  his  farm  neaf 
this  citj.  He  is  a  great  admirer  of  nature,  loven- 
flowers,  and  spends  his  whole  time  on  the  farm,  ex« 
cept  when  doing  his  trading,  or  coming  into  the  city 
to  see  his  children  and  grandchildren.  He  don't 
drink,  he  don't  chew  tobacco,  he  don't  gamble,  he  is 
honorable  and  truthful,  and  he  is  highly  respected 
by  his  fellow-citizens.  He  is  a  great  reader,  a  great 
thinker,  loves  his  neighbors  and  his  neighbors  love 
him.  He  has  a  great,  big,  kind  heart  for  his  fellow- 
man  in  distress,  and,  while  never  worth  '  consider- 
able property,'  he  has  always  had  enough  for  his 
generous  purposes.  Just  why  this  thing  should  be 
allowed  we  are  at  a  loss  to  know,  and  have  waited  to 
see  if  some  of  those  who  profess  so  much  of  the 
Christ-like  in  their  composition  would  not  have 
enough  of  the  man-like  to  be  men,  and  not  allow  a 
good  and  true  man  as  Mr.  Herndon  is  to  be  thus  in- 
famously maligned  and  belied  by  those  whose  works 
in  the  salvation  of  men  would  have  more  effect  if 
more  akin  to  Christ  in  practice." 

After  a  life  of  honest  toil,  much  of  it  in  behalf  of 
the  poor  and  the  weak,  without  reward  and  without 
the  expectation  of  reward,  to  be  in  his  old  age  thus 
shamefully  robbed  of  his  good  name,  was  an  outrage 
almost  without  a  parallel,  save  in  the  treatment  re- 
ceived by  Thomas  Paine.  That  Mr.  Herndon  was 
keenly  sensitive  to  this  great  wrong  is  disclosed  by 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  129 

the  tone  of  his  letters  writteu  at  the  time.  In  one 
he  says :  "  I  hare  done  nothing  in  the  spirit  of  self- 
laudation.  I  prefer  moving  down  the  grooves  of 
time  unnoticed  and  unknown,  except  to  friends.  I 
have  no  ambition  for  fame  or  money.  My  ambition 
is  to  try  to  do  good.  I  spent  ten  or  more  years  of 
my  best  life  for  the  negro,  liberty,  and  union,  not 
forgetting  Kansas  and  her  brave  people.  But  let  it 
all  go ;  I  make  no  complaint.  I  try  to  live  a  moral 
and  a  manly  life,  love  my  fellow  man,  love  freedom, 
love  justice,  and  would  die  for  the  eternal  right." 

As  an  index  of  public  sentiment  in  the  community 
where  the  defamed  and  the  defamer  resided,  I  will 
state  two  facts.  On  a  pleasant  September  evening, 
in  1882,  I  attended  Dr.  Reed's  church  in  Springfield. 
In  that  commodious  edifice,  built  to  accommodate  an 
audience  of  nearly  one  thousand,  I  found  assembled 
to  listen  to  this  renowned  "  defender  of  Lincoln's 
Christian  faith,"  an  audience  of  forty-four  persons. 
About  the  same  time,  in  the  published  report  of  a 
public  meeting  held  near  Springfield,  appeared  the 
following :  "  Five  thousand  people  hovered  around 
the  speaker's  stand  for  the  purpose  of  listening  to 
the  able,  eloquent,  and  well-known  Hon.  W.  H. 
Herndon." 

It  has  been  charged  that  Mr.  Herndon's  statements 
concerning  Lincoln's  unbelief  were  inspired  by  a 
spirit  of  revenge  in  consequence  of  Lincoln's  not 


130  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN! 

having  recognized  him  with  an  appointment.  This 
charge  and  this  assumption  are  both  false.  There 
is  now  on  file  at  Washington  and  at  Springfield  a 
telegram  from  Lincoln  tendering  him  a  judgeship, 
which  he  declined. 

To  know  Lincoln  was  to  love  him.  None  knew 
him  better  than  Mr.  Herndon,  and  none  entertained 
a  deeper  affection  for  his  memory.  In  a  letter  to  me, 
dated  Nov.  4,  1881,  he  pays  this  tribute  to  his  dead 
friend : 

"Some  people  say  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  an  un- 
grateful man.  This  is  not  true,  and  especially  when 
applied  to  myself.  He  was  always  kind,  tender,  and 
grateful  to  me — clung  to  me  with  hooks  of  steel.  I 
know  that  I  was  true  to  him.  It  is  said  that  no  man 
is  great  to  his  valet.  If  I  was  Mr.  Lincoln's  valet, 
the  rule  does  not  apply  in  this  case,  for  my  opinion 
of  him  is  too  well  known.  His  was  a  grand,  noble, 
true,  and  manly  life.  He  dreamed  dreams  of  glory, 
and  glory  was  justly  his.  He  was  growing  and  ex- 
panding to  the  day  of  his  death.  He  was  slow  in 
his  development,  but  strong  and  big  when  he  did 
come.  The  last  letter  which  I  ever  received  from 
him  concluded  thus:  *God  bless  you,  says  your 
friend. — A.  Lincoln*  He  felt  what  he  expressed, and 
in  return  I  say,  God  bless  you,  Lincoln.'* 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  131 


CHAPTER  VIL 

TESTIMONY  OP  COL.   WARD    H.   LAMON. 

Lamon's  "  Life  of  Lincoln  "—Lincoln's  Early  Skepticism— His  Invea- 
tigations  at  New  Salem — His  Book  on  Infidelity — His  Religious  Opin- 
ions Remain  Unchanged— Holland's  Condemnation  of  Lamon's  Work- 
Holland's  and  Lamon's  Works  Compared. 

In  1872,  seven  years  after  the  President's  assassi- 
nation, appeared  the  "Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln," 
written  by  Col.  Ward  H.  Lamon.  As  a  faithful 
record  of  the  life  of  one  of  the  most  sublime  char- 
acters in  the  world's  history,  this  work  stands  un- 
rivaled. More  accomplished  writers  have  written 
biography — have  written  the  biography  of  Lincoln, 
But  no  writer  has  ever  been  more  thoroughly  in- 
formed respecting  his  subject,  and  no  writer  has  ever 
made  a  more  conscientious  use  of  the  information  in 
his  possession  than  has  Colonel  Lamon  in  his  "  Life 
of  Lincoln."  In  Illinois  he  was  the  friend  and  con- 
fidant of  Lincoln.  When  the  time  approached  for 
Lincoln  to  take  the  Executive  chair,  and  the  journey 
from  Springfield  to  Washington  was  deemed  a  danger- 
ous undertaking,  to  Colonel  Lamon  was  intrusted  the 
responsible  duty  of   conducting  him  to  the  national 


132  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

capital.  During  the  eventful  years  that  followed, 
lie  remained  at  the  President's  side,  holding  an  im- 
portant official  position  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
When  Lincoln  died,  at  the  great  funeral  pageant  in 
"Washington,  he  led  tlie  civic  procession,  and  was, 
with  Major  General  Hunter  and  Judge  David  Davis, 
selected  to  convey  the  remains  to  their  linal  resting- 
place  at  Springfield. 

The  following  extract,  from  the  preface  to  his 
work,  shows  what  an  inexhaustible  mine  of  materials 
he  had  with  which  to  prepare  a  full  and  authentic 
record  of  Lincoln's  life  and  character : 

"At  the  time  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  death,  I  determined 
to  write  his  history,  as  I  had  in  my  possession  much 
valuable  material  for  such  a  purpose.  .  .  .  Early 
in  1869,  Mr.  Herndon  placed  at  my  disposal  his 
remarkable  collection  of  materials — the  richest, 
rarest,  and  fullest  collection  it  was  possible  to  con- 
ceive. .  .  .  Mr.  Herndon  had  been  the  partner 
in  business  and  the  intimate  personal  associate  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  for  something  like  a  quarter  of  a  cent- 
ury; and  Mr.  Lincoln  had  lived  familiarly  with 
several  members  of  his  family  long  before  their 
individual  acquaintance  began.  New  Salem,  Spring- 
field, the  old  judicial  circuit,  the  habits  and  friends 
of  Mr.  Lincoln,  were  as  well  known  to  Mr.  Herndon 
as  to  himself.  With  these  advantages,  and  from  the 
numberless  facts  and  hints  which  had  dropped  from 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  133 

Mr.  Lincoln  during  the  confidential  intercourse  of  an 
ordinary  lifetime,  Mr.  Herndon  was  able  to  institute 
a  thorough  system  of  inquiry  for  every  noteworthy 
circumstance  and  every  incident  of  value  in  Mr. 
Lincoln's  career.  The  fruits  of  Mr.  Herndon's 
labors  are  garnered  in  three  enormous  volumes  of 
original  manuscripts  and  a  mass  of  unarranged 
letters  and  papers.  They  comprise  the  recollections 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  nearest  friends  ;  of  the  surviving 
members  of  his  family  and  his  family-connections ; 
of  the  men  still  living  who  knew  him  and  his  parents 
in  Kentucky ;  of  his  schoolfellows,  neighbors,  and 
acquaintances  in  Indiana ;  of  the  better  part  of  the 
whole  population  of  New  Salem  ;  of  his  associates 
and  relatives  at  Springfield  ;  and  of  lawyers,  judges, 
politicians,  and  statesmen  everywhere,  who  had  any- 
thing of  interest  or  moment  to  relate.  They  were 
collected  at  vast  expense  of  time,  labor,  and  money, 
involving  the  employment  of  many  agents,  long 
journeys,  tedious  examinations,  and  voluminous 
correspondence.  Upon  the  value  of  these  materials 
it  would  be  impossible  to  place  an  estimate.  That 
I  have  used  them  conscientiously  and  justly  is  the 
only  merit  to  which  I  lay  claim." 

Lamon's  evidence  concerning  Lincoln's  unbelief  is 
complete  and  unanswerable.  He  did  not  present  it 
because  he  was  himself  an  unbeliever  and  wished  to 
support  his  views  with  the  prestige  of  Lincoln's 


134  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  : 

great  name.  While  the  Freethinker  regards  Lin- 
coln's rejection  of  Christianity  as  in  the  highest 
degree  meritorious — a  proof  of  his  strong  logical 
acumen,  his  sterling  common  sense,  and  his  broad 
humanity — Lamon  considered  it  a  grave  defect  in 
his  character.  He  states  the  fact  because  it  is  a  fact, 
and  because  the  purpose  of  his  work  is  to  disclose 
and  not  conceal  the  facts  of  Lincoln's  life.  If  he 
devotes  considerable  space  to  the  subject,  and  ex- 
hibits a  special  earnestness  in  its  presentation,  the 
misrepresentations  of  Lincoln^s  Christian  biogra- 
phers have  furnished  a  reasonable  pretext  for  it. 

In  the  pages  immediately  following  will  be  given 
the  individual  testimony  of  Colonel  Lamon : 

"Any  analysis  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  character  would 
be  defective  that  did  not  include  his  religious  opin- 
ions. On  such  matters  he  thought  deeply,  and  his 
opinions  were  positive.  But  perhaps  no  phase  of 
his  character  has  been  more  persistently  misrepre- 
sented and  variously  misunderstood,  than  this  of  his 
religious  belief.  Not  that  the  conclusive  testimony 
of  many  of  his  intimate  associates  relative  to  his  fre- 
quent expressions  on  such  subjects  has  ever  been 
wanting ;  but  his  great  prominence  in  the  world's 
history,  and  his  identification  with  some  of  the 
great  questions  of  our  time,  which,  by  their  moral 
import,  were  held  to  be  eminently  religious  in  their 
character,  have  led  many  good  people  to  trace  in  his 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  135 

motives  and  actions  similar  convictions  to  those  held 
by  themselves.  His  extremely  general  expressions 
of  religious  faith  called  forth  by  the  grave  exigen- 
cies of  his  public  life,  or  indulged  in  on  occasions  of 
private  condolence,  have  too  often  been  distorted 
out  of  relation  to  their  real  significance  or  meaning 
to  suit  the  opinions  or  tickle  the  fancies  of  individ- 
uals or  parties. 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  was  never  a  member  of  any  church, 
nor  did  he  believe  in  the  divinity  of  Christ,  or  the 
inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  sense  understood 
by  evangelical  Christians  "  (Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  486). 

Holland  and  other  Christian  biographers  have 
represented  Lincoln  as  a  youth  of  extreme  piety, 
whose  constant  companion  was  the  Bible.  The  con- 
current testimony  of  the  friends  of  his  boyhood  com- 
pels Colonel  Lamon  to  affirm  that  the  reverse  of  this 
is  true — that  Lincoln,  at  an  early  age,  was  noted  for 
his  skepticism.     He  says : 

"  When  a  boy,  he  showed  no  sign  of  that  piety 
which  his  many  biographers  ascribe  to  his  manhood. 
.  .  .  When  he  went  to  church  at  all,  he  went  to 
mock,  and  came  away  to  mimic"  (Ibid,  pp.  486, 
487). 

"At  an  early  age  he  began  to  attend  the  *  preach- 
ings '  roundabout,  but  principally  at  the  Pigeon 
Creek  church,  with  a  view  to  catching  whatever 
might  be  ludicrous  in  the  preacher's  air  or  matter, 


136  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

and  making  it  the  subject  of  mimicry  as  soon  as  he 
could  collect  an  audience  of  idle  boys  and  men  to 
hear  him.  A  pious  stranger,  passing  that  way  on  a 
Sunday  morning,  was  invited  to  preach  for  the 
Pigeon  Creek  congregation ;  but  he  banged  the 
boards  of  the  old  pulpit,  and  bellowed  and  groaned 
so  wonderfully,  that  Abe  could  hardly  contain  his 
mirth.  This  memorable  sermon  was  a  great  favor- 
ite with  him  ;  and  he  frequently  reproduced  it  with 
nasal  tones,  rolling  eyes,  and  all  manner  of  droll 
aggravations,  to  the  great  delight  of  Nat  Grigsby 
and  the  wild  fellows  whom  Nat  was  able  to  assem- 
ble" (lb.,  p.  55). 

"  His  chronicles  were  many,  and  on  a  great  variety 
of  subjects.  They  were  written,  as  his  early  ad- 
mirers love  to  tell  us,  *  in  the  Scriptural  style  ;'  but 
those  we  have  betray  a  very  limited  acquaintance 
with  the  model  "  (lb.,  p.  63). 

Of  his  Freethought  reading  and  theological  inves- 
tigations at  New  Salem,  and  his  book  on  Infidelity, 
Lamon  says : 

"  When  he  came  to  New  Salem,  he  consorted  with 
Freethinkers,  joined  with  them  in  deriding  the  gos- 
pel history  of  Jesus,  read  Yolney  and  Paine,  and  then 
wrote  a  deliberate  and  labored  essay,  wherein  he 
reached  conclusions  similar  to  theirs.  The  essay 
was  burnt,  but  he  never  denied  or  regretted  its 
composition.     On  the  contrary,  he  made  it  the  sub- 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  137 

ject  of  free  and  frequent  conversations  with  his 
friends  at  Springfield,  and  stated,  with  mucli  par- 
ticularity and  precision,  the  origin,  arguments,  and 
objects  of  the  work  "  (lb.,  p.  487). 

"  The  community  in  which  he  lived  was  pre- 
eminently a  community  of  Freethinkers  in  matters 
of  religion  ;  and  it  was  then  no  secret,  nor  has  it 
been  a  secret  since,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  agreed  with 
the  majority  of  his  associates  in  denying  to  the  Bible 
the  authority  of  divine  revelation.  It  was  his  honest 
belief,  a  belief  which  it  was  no  reproach  to  hold  at 
New  Salem,  Anno  Domini  1834,  and  one  which  he 
never  thought  of  concealing.  It  was  no  distinction, 
either  good  or  bad,  no  honor,  and  no  shame.  But 
he  had  made  himself  thoroughly  familiar  with  the 
writings  of  Paine  and  Volney — the  '  Ruins '  by  the 
one,  and  '  The  Age  of  Reason '  by  the  other.  His 
mind  was  full  of  the  subject,  and  he  felt  an  itching 
to  write.  He  did  write,  and  the  result  was  a  little 
book.  It  was  probably  merely  an  extended  essay, 
but  it  is  ambitiously  spoken  of  as  '  a  book '  by  him- 
self and  by  the  persons  who  were  made  acquainted 
with  its  contents.  In  this  work  he  intended  to 
demonstrate — 

"  '  First,  that  the  Bible  was  not  God's  revelation ; 

"  '  Secondly,  that  Jesus  was  not  the  son  of  God.' 

"  No  leaf  of  this  little  volume  has  survived.  Mr. 
Lincoln  carried  it  in  manuscript  to  the  store  of  Mr, 


138  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN! 

Samuel  Hill,  where  it  was  read  and  discussed. 
Hill  was  himself  an  unbeliever,  but  his  son  consid- 
ered his  book  '  infamous.'  It  is  more  than  probable 
that  Hill,  being  a  warm  personal  friend  of  Lincoln, 
feared  that  the  publication  of  the  essay  would  some 
day  interfere  with  the  political  advancement  of  his 
favorite.  At  all  events,  he  snatched  it  out  of  his 
hand,  and  thrust  it  into  the  fire,  from  which  not  a 
shred  escaped  "  (lb.,  pp.  157,  158). 

Colonel  Lamon  is  confident  that  while  Lincoln 
finally  ceased  to  openly  promulgate  his  Freethought 
opinions,  he  never  abandoned  them.     He  says  : 

"  As  he  grew  older,  he  grew  more  cautious  ;  and 
as  his  New  Salem  associates,  and  the  aggressive 
Deists  with  whom  he  originally  united  at  Spring- 
field, gradually  dispersed,  or  fell  away  from  his  side, 
he  appreciated  more  and  more  keenly  the  violence 
and  extent  of  the  religious  prejudices  which  freedom 
in  discussion  from  his  standpoint  would  be  sure  to 
arouse  against  him.  He  saw  the  immense  and 
augmenting  power  of  the  churches,  and  in  times  past 
had  practically  felt  it.  The  imputation  of  Infidelity 
had  seriously  injured  him  in  several  of  his  earlier 
political  contests ;  and,  sobered  by  age  and  expe- 
rience^  he  was  resolved  that  that  same  imputation 
should  injure  him  no  more.  Aspiring  to  lead  relig- 
ious communities,  he  foresaw  that  he  must  not 
appear  as  an  enemy  within  their  gates  ;  aspiring  to 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  139 

public  honors  under  the  auspices  of  a  political 
party  which  persistently  summoned  religious  people 
to  assist  in  the  extirpation  of  that  which  is  denounced 
as  the  '  nation's  sin,'  he  foresaw  that  he  could  not 
ask  their  suffrages  whilst  aspersing  their  faith.  He 
perceived  no  reason  for  changing  his  conrictions, 
but  he  did  perceive  many  good  and  cogent  reasons 
for  not  making  them  public"  (lb.,  pp.  497,  498). 

"  But  he  never  told  anyone  that  he  accepted  Jesus 
as  the  Chrisi,  or  performed  a  single  one  of  the  acts 
which  necessarily  follow  upon  such  a  conviction. 
At  Springfield  and  at  Washington  he  was  beset  on 
the  one  hand  by  political  priests,  and  on  the  other 
by  honest  and  prayerful  Christians.  He  despised 
the  former,  respected  the  latter,  and  had  use  for 
both.  He  said  with  characteristic  irreverence  that 
he  would  not  undertake  to  *  run  the  churches  by 
military  authority  ;'  but  he  was,  nevertheless,  alive 
to  the  importance  of  letting  the  churches  *  run ' 
themselves  in  the  interest  of  his  party.  Indefinite 
expressions  about  *  Divine  Providence,'  the  '  Justice 
of  God,'  '  the  favor  of  the  Most  High,'  were  easy, 
and  not  inconsistent  with  his  religious  notions.  In 
this,  accordingly,  he  indulged  freely ;  but  never  in 
all  that  time  did  he  let  fall  from  his  lips  or  his  pen 
an  expression  which  remotely  implied  the  slightest 
faith  in  Jesus  as  the  son  of  God  and  the  Savior  of 
men"  (lb.,  p.  502). 


140  ABBAHAM    LINCOLN: 

Lamon  was  Lincoln's  intimate  and  trusted  friend 
at  Washington,  and  bad  lie  changed  his  belief,  his 
biographer,  as  well  as  Noah  Brooks  and  the  Illinois 
clergyman,  would  have  been  in  possession  of  the 
fact. 

In  1851  Lincoln  wrote  a  letter  of  consolation  to 
his  dying  father,  in  which  he  counseled  him  to 
"  confide  in  our  great  and  good  and  merciful  Maker." 
This  letter  was  given  to  the  public  by  Mr.  Herndon, 
and  has  been  cited  by  the  orthodox  ^o  prove  that 
Lincoln  was  a  believer.  Adverting  to  this  letter 
Lamon  says : 

"  If  ever  there  was  a  moment  when  Mr.  Lincoln 
might  have  been  expected  to  express  his  faith  in  the 
atonement,  his  trust  in  the  merits  of  a  living 
Redeemer,  it  was  when  he  undertook  to  send  a  com- 
posing and  comforting  message  to  a  dying  man. 
.  .  .  But  he  omitted  it  wholly.  He  did  not  even 
mention  the  name  of  Jesus,  or  intimate  the  most 
distant  suspicion  of  the  existence  of  a  Christ " 
(Ibid.,  p.  497). 

Lincoln's  mind  was  not  entirely  free  from  super- 
stition, but  though  born  and  reared  in  Christendom, 
the  superstitious  element  in  his  nature  was  not 
essentially  Christian.  His  fatalistic  ideas,  so  char- 
acteristic of  the  faith  of  Islam,  have  already  been 
mentioned  by  Mr.  Herndon,  and  are  thus  referred  to 
by  Colonel  Lamon : 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  141 

"Mr.  Lincoln  was  by  no  means  free  from  a  kind 
of  belief  in  the  supernatural.  .  .  .  He  lived 
constantly  in  the  serious  conviction  that  be  was  him- 
self the  subject  of  a  special  decree,  made  by  some 
unknown  and  mysterious  power,  for  which  he  had  no 
name  "  (Ibid.,  p.  603). 

''  His  mind  was  filled  with  gloomy  forebodings 
and  strong  apprehensions  of  impending  evil,  mingled 
with  extravagant  visions  of  personal  grandeur  and 
power.  His  imagination  painted  a  scene  just  be- 
yond the  veil  of  the  immediate  future,  gilded  with 
glory  yet  tarnished  with  blood.  It  was  his  '  des- 
tiny ' —  splendid  but  dreadful,  fascinating  but 
terrible.  His  case  bore  little  resemblance  to 
those  of  religious  enthusiasts  like  Bunyan, 
Cowper,  and  others.  His  was  more  like  the  de- 
lusion of  the  fatalist  conscious  of  his  star  "  (Ibid., 
p.  475). 

When  Lamon's  work  appeared,  Holland,  backed  by 
the  Christian  element  generally,  fell  upon  it  like  a 
savage  and  sought,  as  far  as  possible,  to  suppress  it. 
Lamon  had  committed  an  unpardonable  offense.  He 
had  declared  to  the  world  that  Lincoln  had  died  a 
disbeliever,  and,  what  was  worse,  he  had  proved  it. 
Holland's  attack  was  made  in  an  eight-column 
review  of  Lamon's  "  Life,"  which  was  published  in 
Scribner's  Monthly,  for  August,  1872.  In  order  to  give 
an  air  of  candor  and  judicial  fairness  to  his  veno- 


142  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

mous  criticisms,  he  opens  with  this  flattering  recogni- 
tion of  its  merits  : 

"  It  is  not  difficult  to  see  how  Colonel  Lamon,  who 
during  Mr.  Lincoln's  Presidency  held  an  office  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  which  must  have  brought  him 
into  somewhat  frequent  intercourse  with  the  Presi- 
dent, and  who,  indeed,  had  come  with  him  from 
Springfield  to  the  Capital,  should  feel  that  there 
rested  on  him  a  certain  biographical  duty.  And 
certainly  he  was  in  possession  of  a  mass  of  material 
so  voluminous,  so  original,  and  so  fresh  that  in  this 
respect  at  least  his  fitness  for  the  work  was  remark- 
ably complete.  Moreover,  Mr.  W.  H.  Herndon,  who 
was  Mr,  Lincoln's  partner  in  the  practice  of  the  law  at 
Springfield,  and  was,  of  course,  closely  intimate  with 
his  partner  in  a  business  way,  .  .  .  added  to 
Colonel  Lamon's  material  the  valuable  documents 
which  he  had  himself  collected,  and  the  memoranda 
which,  with  painstaking  and  lawyer-like  ability,  he 
had  recorded  from  the  oral  testimony  of  living  wit- 
nesses. 

"  As  far  as  the  story  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  childhood 
and  early  life  is  concerned,  down  to  the  time  when 
his  political  life  began,  it  has  never  been  told  so 
fully,  with  such  spirit  and  zest,  and  with  such  evi- 
dent accuracy,  as  by  Colonel  Lamon." 

Nearly  the  entire  review  is  devoted  to  a  denuncia- 
tion of  Lamon's  exposition  of  Lincoln's  religious 


WAS   HE   A  CHRISTIAN?  143 

opinions.  He  repeatedly  pronounces  this  "  an  out- 
rage on  decency,"  and  characterizes  Lincoln's  Free- 
thought  companions  as  "  heathen,"  "  barbarians," 
and  "savages."     The  review  concludes  as  follows: 

*'  The  violent  and  reckless  prejudice,  and  the  utter 
want  of  delicacy  and  even  of  decency  by  which  the 
book  is  characterized,  in  such  instances  as  this,  will 
more  than  counterbalance  the  value  of  its  new  ma- 
terial, its  fresh  and  vigorous  pictures  of  Western 
life  and  manners,  and  its  familiar  knowledge  of  the 
''inside  politics'  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  administration, 
and  will  even  make  its  publication  (by  the  famous 
publishers  whose  imprint  imparts  to  it  a  prestige 
and  authority  which  its  authorship  would  fail  to 
give)  something  like  a  national  misfortune.  In  some 
quarters  it  will  be  readily  received  as  the  standard 
life  of  the  good  President.  It  is  all  the  more  desir- 
able that  the  criticism  upon  it  should  be  prompt 
and  unsparing." 

Christianity  must  have  the  support  of  Lincoln's 
great  name.  To  secure  it  Holland  is  willing  to  mis- 
represent the  honest  convictions  of  Lincoln's  life- 
time, to  traduce  the  characters  of  his  dearest  friends, 
and  to  rob  a  brother  author  and  a  publisher  of  their 
just  reward. 

Lamon  states  that  during  the  last  years  of  Lin- 
coln's life  he  ceased  to  proclaim  his  Infidel  opinions 
because  they  were  unpopular.     Beferring  to   this 


144  ABRAHAil    LINCOLN: 

statement,  Holland  says  :  "  The  eagerness  with 
which  this  volume  strives  to  cover  Mr.  Lincoln's 
memory  with  an  imputation  so  detestable  is  one  of 
the  most  pitiable  exhibitions  which  we  have  lately 
witnessed." 

This  outburst  of  righteous  indignation,  coming 
from  the  source  it  does,  is  peculiarly  refreshing. 
To  appreciate  it,  we  have  only  to  open  Holland's 
work,  and  read  such  passages  as  the  following  :  "  I 
am  obliged  to  appear  different  to  them."  "  It  was 
one  of  the  peculiarities  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  hide  these 
religious  [Christian]  experiences  from  the  eyes  of 
the  world."  "  "Who  had  never  in  their  whole  lives 
heard  from  his  lips  one  word  of  all  these  religious 
convictions  and  experiences."  "  They  [his  friends] 
did  not  regard  him  as  a  religious  man."  "All  this 
department  of  his  life  he  had  kept  carefully  hidden 
from  them."  "  There  was  much  of  his  conduct  that 
was  simply  a  cover  to  these  thoughts — an  effort  to 
conceal  them  "  (Holland's  Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  239, 
240). 

Consummate  hypocrisy  in  a  Christian  is  all  right 
with  this  moralist ;  but  for  a  Freethinker  to  with- 
hold his  views  from  an  intolerant  religious  world  is 
a  detestable  crime. 

As  a  biographer  of  Lincoln,  Holland  possessed 
many  advantages  over  Lamon.  His  work  was  writ- 
ten and  published  immediately  after  the  awful  trag- 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  145 

edy,  when  almost  the  entire  reading  public  was 
deeply  interested  in  everything  that  pertained  to 
Lincoln's  life.  So  far  as  Lincoln's  religious  views 
are  concerned,  he  advocated  the  popular  side  of  the 
question ;  for  while  those  outside  of  the  church 
cared  but  little  about  the  matter,  the  church  desired 
the  influence  of  his  great  name,  and  was  ready  to 
reward  those  who  assisted  her  in  obtaining  it.  Hol- 
land, too,  had  an  established  reputation  as  an  author 
— had  nearly  as  large  a  class  of  readers  as  any 
writer  in  this  country.  His  name  alone  was  suffi- 
cient to  guarantee  a  large  circulation  to  any  book  he 
might  produce.  Lamon,  on  the  other  hand,  pos- 
sessed but  a  single  advantage  over  his  rival,  that  of 
having  the  truth  on  his  side.  And  while  "  truth  is 
mighty,"  and  will  in  the  end  prevail,  yet  how  often 
is  it  "  crushed  to  earth  "  and  for  the  time  obscured. 
In  view  of  all  this,  it  is  not  strange  that  the  public 
should  be  so  slow  to  reject  the  fictions  of  Holland 
and  accept  the  facts  of  Lamon. 

That  Lamon's  *'  Life  of  Lincoln  "  is  wholly  unde- 
serving of  adverse  criticism,  is  not  claimed.  He 
has,  perhaps,  given  undue  prominence  to  some 
matters  connected  with  Lincoln's  private  affairs 
which  might  with  propriety  have  been  consigned  to 
oblivion.  A  larger  manifestation  of  charity,  too,  for 
the  imperfections  of  those  with  whom  Lincoln 
mingled,  especially  in   the   humbler  walks   of  life, 


146  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

would  not  have  detracted  from  its  merit.  And  yet, 
those  who  desire  to  know  Lincoln  as  he  really  was, 
should  read  Lamon  rather  than  Holland.  In 
Lamon's  work,  Lincoln's  character  is  a  rugged  oak, 
towering  above  its  fellows  and  clothed  in  nature's 
livery  ;  in  Holland's  work,  it  is  a  dead  tree  with  the 
bark  taken  oflf,  the  knots  planed  down,  and 
varnished. 

In  the  New  York  World  appeared  the  following 
just  estimate  of  these  two  biographies  : 

"  Mr.  Ward  H.  Lamon  is  the  author  of  one  '  Life  of 
Lincoln,'  and  Dr.  J.  G.  Holland  is  the  author  of  an- 
other. Mr.  Lamon  was  the  intimate  personal  and 
political  friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  trusting  and  trusted, 
from  the  time  of  their  joint  practice  in  the  Illinois 
Quarter  Sessions  to  the  moment  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
death  at  Washington.  Dr.  Holland  was  nothing 
to  Mr.  Lincoln — neither  known  nor  knowing.  Dr. 
Holland  rushed  his  'Life'  from  the  press  before 
the  disfigured  corpse  was  fairly  out  of  sight,  while 
the  public  mind  lingered  with  horror  over  the  details 
of  the  tragedy,  and,  excited  by  morbid  curiosity, 
was  willing  to  pay  for  its  gratification.  Mr.  Lamon 
waited  many  years,  until  all  adventitious  interest 
had  subsided,  and  then  with  incredible  labor  and 
pains,  produced  a  volume  founded  upon  materials 
which  for  their  fulness,  variety,  and  seeming  authen- 
ticity are  unrivaled  in  the  history  of  biographies. 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  147 

Dr.  Holland's  single  volume  professed  to  cover  the 
whole  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  career.  Mr.  Lamon's  single 
volume  was  modestly  confined  to  a  part  of  it.  Dr. 
Holland's  was  an  easy,  graceful,  ofi'-hand  perform- 
ance, having  but  the  one  slight  demerit  of  being  in 
all  essential  particulars  untrue  from  beginning  to 
end.  Mr.  Lamon's  was  a  labored,  cautious,  and 
carefully  verified  narrative  which  seems  to  have 
been  accepted  by  disinterested  critics  as  entirely 
authentic. 

"Dr.  Holland  would  probably  be  very  much 
shocked  if  anybody  should  ask  him  to  bear  false 
witness  in  favor  of  his  neighbor  in  a  court  of  justice, 
but  he  takes  up  his  pen  to  make  a  record  which  he 
hopes  and  intends  shall  endure  forever,  and  in  that 
record  deliberately  bears  false  witness  in  favor  of  a 
public  man  whom  he  happened  to  admire,  with  no 
kind  of  offense  to  his  serene  and  '  cultured '  con- 
science. If  this  were  all — if  Dr.  Holland  merely 
asserted  his  own  right  to  compose  and  publish 
elaborate  fictions  on  historical  subjects — we  might 
comfort  ourselves  with  the  reflection  that  such 
literature  is  likely  to  be  as  evanescent  as  it  is  dis- 
honest, and  let  him  pass  in  silence.  But  this  is  not 
all.  He  maintains  that  it  is  everybody's  duty  to 
help  him  to  deceive  the  public  and  to  write  down 
his  more  conscientious  competitor.  He  turns  up 
the  nose  of  *  culture '  and  curls  the  lip  of  '  art '  at 


148  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN: 

Mr.  Lamon's  homely  narrative  of  facts,  and  gravely 
insists  that  all  other  noses  and  all  other  lips  shall  be 
turned  up  and  curled  because  his  are.  He  implores 
the  public,  which  he  insulted  and  gulled  with  his 
own  book,  to  damn  Mr.  Lamon's,  and  he  puts  his 
request  on  the  very  ground  that  Mr.  Lamon  has 
stupidly  gone  and  narrated  undeniable  truths, 
whereby  he  has  demolished  an  empty  shrine  that 
was  profitable  to  many,  and  broken  a  painted  idol 
that  might  have  served  for  a  god. 

"The  names  of  Holland  and  Lamon  are  not  of 
themselves  and  by  themselves  illustrious ;  but  start- 
ing from  the  title-pages  of  the  two  Lives  of  Lincoln, 
and  representing,  as  they  do,  the  two  schools  of 
biography  writers,  the  one  stands  for  a  principle  and 
the  other  for  the  want  of  it" 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  149 


CHAPTER  YIII. 

TESTIMONY  OF  HON.  JOHN  T.  STUAKT  AND  COL.  JAMES 
H.  MATHENY. 

Testimony  of  Hon.  Joha  T.  Stuart — Testimony  of  CoL  James  H.Ma- 
theny — Stuart's  Disclaimer — ilatheny's  Disclaimer — Examination  and 
Authorship  of  Disclaimera,  lacludmg  the  Ed«rards  and  Lewis  Letters. 

Besides  his  own  testimony  concerning  Lincoln's 
unbelief,  Colonel  Lamon  cites  the  testimony  of  ten 
additional  witnesses  :  Hon.  Wm.  H.  Herndon,  Hon. 
John  T.  Stuart,  Col.  James  H.  Matheny,  Dr.  C.  H. 
Ray,  "Wm.  H.  Hannah,  Esq  ,  Mr.  Jas.  "W.  Keys,  Hon. 
Jesse  W.  Fell,  Col.  John  G.  Nicolay,  Hon.  David 
Davis  and  Mrs.  Mary  Lincoln.  The  testimony  of 
Mr.  Herudon  having  already  been  presented,  the 
testimony  of  Mr.  Stuart  and  Colonel  Matheny  will 
next  be  given.  This  testimony  was  procured  by 
Mr.  Herndon  for  the  purpose  of  refuting  the  errone- 
ous statements  of  Dr.  Holland. 

Hon,  John  T.  Stuart,  who  was  for  a  time  a  mem- 
ber of  Congress  from  Illinois,  was  the  first  law 
partner  of  Lincoln.     He  says  : 

"Lincoln  went  further  against  Christian  beliefs 
and  doctrines  and  principles  than  any  man  I  ever 


150  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

heard:  he  shocked  me.  I  don't  remember  the 
exact  line  of  his  argument — suppose  it  was  against 
the  inherent  defects,  so  called,  of  the  Bible,  and  on 
grounds  of  reason.  Lincoln  always  denied  that 
Jesus  was  the  Christ  of  God — denied  that  Jesus  was 
the  son  of  God,  as  understood  and  maintained  by 
the  Christian  church.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  who 
wrote  a  letter,  tried  to  convert  Lincoln  from  Infidel- 
ity so  late  as  1858,  and  couldn't  do  it  "  (Lamon's 
Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  488). 

Col.  James  H.  Matheny  was  one  of  Lincoln's  most 
intimate  friends,  and  was  for  many  years  his  chief 
political  manager.     He  testifies  as  follows  : 

"  I  knew  Mr.  Lincoln  as  early  as  1834-7 ;  know  he 
was  an  Lifidel.  He  and  W.  D.  Herndon  used  to  talk 
Infidelity  in  the  Clerk's  olBfice  in  this  city,  about  the 
years  1837-40.  Lincoln  attacked  the  Bible  and  the 
New  Testament  on  two  grounds :  first,  from  the  in- 
herent or  apparent  contradictions  under  its  lids ; 
second,  from  the  grounds  of  reason.  Sometimes  he 
ridiculed  the  Bible  and  the  New  Testament,  some- 
times seemed  to  scoff  it,  though  I  shall  not  use  that 
word  in  its  full  and  literal  sense.  I  never  heard 
that  Lincoln  changed  his  views,  though  his  personal 
and  political  friend  from  1834  to  1860.  Sometimes 
Lincoln  bordered  on  Atheism.  He  went  far  that 
way  and  shocked  me.  I  was  then  a  young  man,  and 
believed  what  my  good  mother  told  me.    Stuart  and 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  151 

Lincoln's  office  was  in  what  is  called  Hoffman's  Row, 
on  North  Fifth  street,  near  the  public  square.  It 
was  in  the  same  building  as  the  Clerk's  office,  and 
on  the  same  floor.  Lincoln  would  come  into  the 
Clerk's  office,  where  I  and  some  young  men — Evan 
Butler,  Newton  Francis  and  others — were  writing  or 
staying,  and  would  bring  the  Bible  with  him  ;  would 
read  a  chapter,  argue  against  it.  Lincoln  then  had 
a  smattering  of  geology,  if  I  recollect  it.  Lincoln 
often,  if  not  wholly,  was  an  Atheist ;  at  least,  bor- 
dered on  it.  Lincoln  was  enthusiastic  in  his  Infidel- 
ity. As  he  grew  older,  he  grew  more  discreet,  didn't 
talk  much  before  strangers  about  his  religion ;  but 
to  friends,  close  and  bosom  ones,  he  was  always 
open  and  avowed,  fair  and  honest ;  but  to  strangers, 
he  held  them  off  from  policy.  Lincoln  used  to  quote 
Burns.  Burns  helped  Lincoln  to  be  an  Infidel,  as  I 
think  ;  at  least  he  found  in  Burns  a  like  thinker 
and  feeler. 

"  From  what  I  know  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  views 
of  Christianity,  and  from  what  I  know  as  honest, 
well-founded  rumor ;  from  what  I  have  heard  his 
best  friends  say  and  regret  for  years  ;  from  what  he 
never  denied  when  accused,  and  from  what  Lincoln 
has  hinted  and  intimated,  to  say  no  more,  he  did 
write  a  little  book  on  Infidelity,  at  or  near  New 
Salem,  in  Menard  county,  about  the  year  1834  or 
1835.     I  have  stated  these  things  to    you    often. 


152  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

Judge  Logan,  John  T.  Stuart,  yourself,  know  what  I 
know,  and  some  of  you  more. 

"  Mr.  Herndon,  you  insist  on  knowing  something 
which  you  know  I  possess,  and  got  as  a  secret,  and 
that  is,  about  Lincoln's  little  book  on  Infidelity. 
Mr.  Lincoln  did  tell  me  that  he  did  ivrite  a  little  hook 
on  InJideUty.  This  statement  I  have  avoided  liereto- 
fore ;  but,  as  you  strongly  insist  upon  it — probably 
to  defend  yourself  against  charges  of  misrepresenta- 
tions— I  give  it  to  you  as  I  got  it  from  Lincoln's 
mouth  "  (Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  487,  488). 

The  evidence  of  Stuart  and  Matheny,  as  recorded 
in  Lamon's  work,  having  been  presented,  it  is  now 
proper  to  state  that  this  evidence  has,  in  a  measure, 
been  repudiated  by  them.  Dr.  Reed,  in  his  lecture, 
produced  letters  from  them  disclaiming  in  part  or 
modifying  the  statements  imputed  to  them.  Dr. 
Keed  says :  "  I  have  been  amazed  to  find  that  the 
principal  persons  whose  testimony  is  given  in  this 
book  to  prove  that  their  old  friend  lived  and  died 
an  Infidel,  never  wrote  a  word  of  it,  and  never  gave 
it  as  their  opinion  or  allowed  it  to  be  published  as 
covering  their  estimate  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  life  and 
religious  views."  Alluding  to  Stuart's  evidence,  he 
says :  "  Mr.  Lamon  has  attributed  to  Mr.  Stuart 
testimony  the  most  disparaging  and  damaging  to 
Mr.  Lincoln's  character  and  opinions — testimony 
which   Mr.    Stuart   utterly   repudiates,    both   as  to 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  153 

language  and  sentiment."  Kegarding  Matheny's 
testimony,  he  says  :  "  Mr.  Matheny  testifies  that  he 
never  wrote  a  word  of  what  is  attributed  to  him  ; 
that  it  is  not  a  fair  representation  of  either  his  lan- 
guage or  his  opinions,  and  that  he  never  would 
have  allowed  such  an  article  to  be  published  as  cov- 
ering his  estimate  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  life  and  char- 
acter." 
The  following  is  the  disclaimer  of  Mr.  Stuart : 

''  Springfield,  Dec.  17th,  1872. 
"  Kev.  J.  A.  Keed : 

"  Dear  Sir— 
"  My  attention  has  been  called  to  a  statement  in 
relation  to  the  religious  opinions  of   Mr.  Lincoln, 
purporting  to  have  been  made  by  me,  and  published 
in  Lamon's  *  Life  of  Lincoln.'     The  language  of  that 
statement  is  not  mine ;  it  was  not  written  by  me, 
and  I  did  not  see  it  until  it  was  in  print.     I  was  once 
interviewed  on  the  subject  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious 
opinions,  and  doubtless  said  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
in  the  earlier  part  of  his  life  an  Infidel.     I  could  not 
have  said  that  *  Dr.  Smith  tried  to  convert  Lincoln 
from  Infidelity  so  late  as  1858,  and  couldn't  do  it.' 
In  relation  to  that  point  I  stated,  in  the  same  con- 
versation,   some   facts   which    are   omitted  in    that 
statement,  and  which  I  will  briefly   repeat.     That 
Eddie,  a  child  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  died  in  1848  or  1849, 
and  that  he  and  his  wife  were  in  deep  grief  on  the 


154  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

account.     That  Dr.  Smith,  then  pastor  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  church  of  Springfield,  at  the  suggestion 
of  a  lady  friend  of  theirs,  called  upon  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Lincoln,    and    that    first    visit    resulted    in    great 
intimacy  and  friendship  between  them,  lasting  till 
the  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  continuing  with  Mrs. 
Lincoln  till  the  death  of  Dr.  Smith.     I  stated  that  I 
had  heard  at  the  time  that  Dr.  Smith  and  Mr.  Lin- 
coln had  much  discussion  in  relation  to  the  truth  of 
the  Christian  religion,  and  that  Dr.  Smith  had  fur- 
nished Mr.  Lincoln  with  books  to  read  on  that  sub- 
ject, and  among  others  one  which  had  been  written 
by  himself,  sometime  previous,  on  Infidelity ;  and 
that  Dr.  Smith  claimed  that  after  tliis  investigation 
Mr.  Lincoln  had  changed  his  opinions,  and  became 
a   believer  in  the  truth  of  the   Christian  religion ; 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  and  myself  never  conversed  upon 
that  subject,  and  I  had  no  personal  knowledge  as  to 
his  alleged  change  of  opinion.     I  stated,  however, 
that  it  was  certainly  true  that  up  to  that  time  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  never  regularly  attended  any  place  of 
religious  worship,  but  that  after  that  time  he  rented 
a  pew  in  the  First  Presbyterian  church,  and  with  his 
family   constantly   attended    the   worship    in    that 
church  until  he  went  to  "Washington  as  President. 
This  much  I  said    at  the  time,  and  I  can  now  add 
that  the  Hon.  Ninian  W.  Edwards,  the  brother-in- 
law  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  has,  within  a  few  days,  informed 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  155 

m6  that  when  Mr.  Lincoln  commenced  attending  the 
First  Presbyterian  church  he  admitted  to  him  that 
his  views  had  undergone  the  change  claimed  by  Dr. 
Smith.  I  would  further  say  that  Dr.  Smith  was  a 
man  of  great  ability,  and  on  theological  and  meta- 
physical subjects  had  few  superiors  and  not  many 
equals.  Truthfulness  was  a  prominent  trait  in  Mr. 
Lincoln's  character,  and  it  would  be  impossible  for 
any  intimate  friend  of  his  to  believe  that  he  ever 
aimed  to  deceive,  either  by  his  words  or  his  con- 
duct 

"  Yours  truly, 

"JohnT.  Stuart." 

Coh  Matheny's  disclaimer  is  as  follows : 

"  Springfield,  Dec.  16th,  1872. 

"  Rev.  J.  A.  Reed  : 
"  Dear  Sir— 

"  The  language  attributed  to  me  in  Lamon's  book 
is  not  from  my  pen.  I  did  not  write  it,  and  it  does 
not  express  my  sentiments  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  entire 
life  and  character.  It  is  a  mere  collection  of  say- 
ings gathered  from  private  conversations  that  were 
only  true  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  earlier  life.  I  would  not 
have  allowed  such  an  article  to  be  printed  over  my 
signature  as  covering  my  opinion  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
life  and  religious  sentiments.  While  I  do  believe 
Mr.  Lincoln  to  have  been  an  Infidel  in  his  former 
life,  when  his  mind  was  as  yet  unformed,  and  his 


156  ABKAHAM    LINCOLN! 

associatious  principally  with  rough  and  skeptical 
men,  yet  I  believe  he  was  a  very  different  man  in 
later  life,  and  that  after  associating  with  a  different 
class  of  men  and  investigating  the  subject,  he  was  a 
firm  believer  in  the  Christian  religion. 
"  Yours  truly, 

"  Jas.  H.  Matheny." 

This  disclosure  startles  you,  my  dear  reader.  But 
be  patient.  I  will  show  you  that  this  apparently 
mortal  thrust  of  Dr.  Reed's  was  made,  not  with  a 
lance,  but  with  a  boomerang. 

When  Reed  made  his  assault  upon  Lamou's  wit- 
nesses, all  stood  firm  but  two — two  old  Springfield 
politicians  whose  political  aspirations  had  not  yet 
become  extinct — John  T.  Stuart  and  James  H.  Math- 
eny. These  men  had  been  among  the  first  to  testify 
in  regard  to  Lincoln's  unbelief.  His  Christian 
biographers  had  misrepresented  his  religious  views  ; 
they  believed  that  the  fraud  ought  to  be  exposed, 
and  they  were  ready  and  willing  to  aid  in  the  work. 
Their  testimony  exhibits  a  frankness  that  is  truly 
commendable.  Tliey  knew  that  lying  was  a  vice, 
but  they  did  not  know  that  truth-telling  was  a  crime. 
They  had  yet  to  learn  that  the  church  tolerates 
murder  more  readily  than  the  promulgation  of  a 
truth  that  is  antagonistic  to  her  creed.  But  this 
fact  they  were  destined  to  learn.  Lamon's  work 
had  scarcely  been  issued  from  the  press  before  he 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  157 

was  anathematized  and  bis  book  proscribed.  The 
merciless  attack  that  had  already  been  commenced 
upon  Herndon  portended  danger  to  them.  Nor 
had  they  long  to  wait.  In  December,  1872,  they 
were  approached  by  Keed  and  his  coadjutors.  They 
were  informed  that  the  idol  which  their  ruthless 
iconoclasm  had  lielped  to  break  must  be  repaired. 
They  were  given  to  understand  that  if  they  repented 
of  the  part  they  had  performed  and  recanted, 
peace  would  be  their  portion  here  and  endless  bliss 
hereafter ;  but  that  if  they  did  not,  endless  misery 
would  begin  on  Jan.  1,  A.D.  1873. 

The  situation  was  critical.  They  did  not  like  to 
tell  the  world  that  they  had  borne  false  witness 
against  the  dead,  nor  did  they,  any  more  than  Gali- 
leo, wish  to  wear  a  martyr's  crown.  A  compromise 
was  finally  effected.  It  was  incidentally  ascertained 
by  Eeed  that  their  evidence  as  presented  by  Lamon 
was  not  originally  given  in  the  shape  of  a  letter  or  a 
written  statement,  but  orally.  A  happy  thought 
suggested  itself — one  worthy  of  the  unscrupulous 
theological  pettifogger  that  he  is.  The  thought  was 
this  :  "  Say  to  the  public,  or  rather  let  me  say  it  for 
you,  that  you  did  not  write  a  word  of  the  testimony 
attributed  to  you."  Just  as  a  witness  in  court  might 
point  to  the  stenograplier's  report  of  his  testimony 
and  say,  "  I  did  not  write  a  word  of  that." 

In  addition  to  this,  Mr.  Stuart,  in  endeavoring  to 


158  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  : 

explain  away,  as  far  as  possible,  the  obnoxious  char- 
acter of  his  testimony,  declared  that  some  things 
which  he  did  say  at  the  time  his  testimony  was  given 
had  been  omitted ;  while  something  he  did  not  say 
was  inserted.  They  were  both  trivial  matters,  hardly 
worthy  of  notice,  even  if  true,  and  having  no  especial 
bearing  upon  the  case.  But  they  served  an  admi- 
rable purpose  in  enabling  Eeed  to  say  that  the  testi- 
mony adduced  by  Lamon  was  "  abridged  and  dis- 
torted." 

Stuart's  disclaimer,  then,  divested  of  its  mislead- 
ing verbiage,  contains  but  two  points.  In  the  first 
place,  he  says  :  "  I  could  not  have  said  that  *  Dr. 
Smith  tried  to  convert  Lincoln  from  Infidelity  so  late 
as  1858,  and  couldn't  do  it.'  "  This  sentence,  like 
everything  else  in  these  disclaimers,  is  cunningly 
worded  and  intended  to  deceive.  One  would 
naturally  suppose  the  idea  he  intends  to  convey  is 
that  he  never  declared  that  Dr.  Smith  tried  to  con- 
vert Lincoln  and  couldn't  do  it.  This,  it  has  been 
ascertained,  is  not  his  meaning.  What  he  means  is 
this  :  "  I  could  not  have  said  that  '  Dr.  Smith  tried 
to  convert  Lincoln  from  Infidelity,  so  late  as  1858, 
and  couldn't  do  it.'  "  His  denial  is  a  mere  quibble 
about  a  date.  He  did  undoubtedly  say  just  what  he 
is  reported  to  have  said.  But  admitting  a  doubt,  and 
giving  him  the  benefit  of  this  doubt,  by  throwing  out 
the  disputed  date,  the  passage  is  not  less  damaging 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  159 

than  it  was  before  :  "  Dr.  Smith  tried  to  convert 
Lincoln  from  Infidelity,  and  couldn't  do  it."  But 
let  us  omit  the  entire  sentence,  and  the  testimony  of 
Mr.  Stuart  that  remains,  about  which  there  is  no 
dispute,  that  portion  of  his  testimony  which  he  ad- 
mits to  be  correct — is  as  follows  : 

"Lincoln  went  further  against  Christian  beliefs 
and  doctrines  and  principles  than  any  man  I  ever 
heard;  he  shocked  me.  I  don't  remember  the 
exact  line  of  his  argument ;  suppose  it  was  against 
the  inherent  defects,  so  called,  of  the  Bible,  and 
on  grounds  of  reason.  Lincoln  always  denied  that 
Jesus  was  the  Christ  of  God — denied  that  Jesus 
was  the  Son  of  God,  as  understood  and  maintained 
by  the  Christian  church," 

In  the  second  place,  Mr.  Stuart  complains  that 
the  rumors  concerning  Dr.  Smith's  attempted  con- 
version of  Lincoln  which  he  had  mentioned  to  Mr. 
Herndon  at  the  time  of  giving  his  testimony,  were 
omitted.  They  were,  and  very  properly,  too.  Mr. 
Stuart,  or  any  other  good  lawyer,  would  have  omit- 
ted them.  Mr.  Herndon  desired  him  to  testify 
about  what  he  knew,  and  not  about  what  he  had 
heard,  especially  as  he  was  going  to  headquarters  in 
regard  to  these  rumors.  He  wrote  to  Dr.  Smith 
himself  about  them,  received  his  testimony,  and 
gave  it  to  the  public. 

Stuart  affects  to  believe   that   this  story,   which 


160  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

Ninian  Edwards  is  dragged  around  by  Reed  to 
verify,  may  possibly  have  been  true.  But  in  the 
same  sentence,  he  refutes  this  idea,  and  refutes  the 
claim  itself,  by  saying:  "I  had  no  personal  knowl- 
edge as  to  his  alleged  change  of  opinion."  Stuart 
was  a  family  connection  of  Lincoln,  and  if  Lincoln 
had  been  converted,  he,  as  well  as  every  other  per- 
son in  Springfield,  would  have  known  it. 

He  states  that  Dr.  Smith's  first  visit  to  Lincoln 
was  "  at  the  suggestion  of  a  lady  friend."  To  have 
avoided  another  glaring  contradiction  in  the  evidence 
of  his  witnesses,  Reed  should  have  had  Major  Stuart 
state  that  this  "  lady  friend "  was  Thomas  Lewis. 
As  it  is,  the  account  given  by  Stuart  of  Dr.  Smith's 
first  visit  and  acquaintance  with  Lincoln  is  entirely 
at  variance  with  the  account  given  by  Mr.  Lewis  in 
his  letter,  quoted  in  chapter  L 

Mr.  Stuart  evidently  entertained  no  very  kind 
opinion  of  Colonel  Lamon's  work,  and  this  made 
him  all  the  more  disposed  to  accede  to  Eeed's  de~ 
mands.  His  position  on  the  slavery  question,  for  a 
time,  was  one  which,  in  the  light  of  subsequent 
events,  he  had  no  reason  to  be  proud  of,  and  Lamou 
in  narrating  the  acts  of  Lincoln's  life  found  it  neces- 
sary frequently  to  refer  to  this.  Such  passages  as 
the  following  were  calculated  not  only  to  make  him 
offended  at  Lamon,  but  jealous  of  Herndon  :  ''  John 
T.  Stuart  was  keeping  his  eye  on  Lincoln,  with  the 


WA8   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  161 

view  of  keeping  him  ou  his  side — the  totally  dead 
conservative  side."  "  Mr.  Lincoln  was  beset  by 
warm  friends  and  by  old  coadjutors,  and  besought 
to  pause  in  his  anti-slavery  course  while  there  was 
yet  time.  Among  these  there  was  none  more  earnest 
or  persuasive  than  John  T.  Stuart,  who  was  but  the 
type  of  a  class.  .  .  .  But  Mr.  Herndon  was  more 
than  a  match  for  the  full  array  against  him.  An 
earnest  man,  instant  in  season  and  out  of  season,  he 
spoke  with  the  eloquence  of  apparent  truth  and  of 
real  personal  love  "  (Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  374,  352). 

Colonel  Matheny  was  not  prepared  to  deny  the 
correctness  of  a  single  statement  in  his  testimony, 
but  was  forced  to  modify  its  bearing  as  a  whole.  He 
was  made  to  say  :  "  It  does  not  express  my  senti- 
ments of  Mr.  Lincoln's  entire  life  and  character." 
Now,  anyone  who  reads  his  evidence  cannot  fail  to 
observe  that  he  did  intend  to  cover  Lincoln's  entire 
life  and  character.  There  is  not  in  it  the  slightest 
intimation  that  he  referred  merely  to  a  part  of  his 
life.  Indeed,  there  is  one  statement  in  his  evidence 
which  utterly  precludes  such  an  assumption.  He 
expressly  says :  "  I  never  heard  that  Lincoln 
changed  his  views,  though  his  personal  and  political 
friend  from  1834  to  1860."  But  Eeed  must  have  a 
sufficient  portion  of  his  life  reserved  in  which  to  in- 
ject the  story  of  his  alleged  conversion ;  and  so 
Matheny's  offense  was  condoned   on  the   condition 


162  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN! 

that  he  retain  the  earlier  part  of  Lincoln's  life  for 
his  testimony  to  rest  upon,  and  concede  the  remain- 
der to  Reed  for  "  The  Later  Life  and  Religious 
Sentiments  of  Lincoln."  This  division  of  Lincoln's 
life  is  quite  indefinite,  but  Reed  would  have  us  be- 
lieve that  Colonel  Mathenj's  evidence  relates  wholly 
to  that  portion  of  his  life  anterior  to  1848,  when  Dr. 
Smith  began  the  task  of  Christianizing  him. 
Matheny's  disclaimer  is  dated  Dec.  16,  1872.  On 
Dec.  9,  1873,  he  made  the  following  explanation, 
which  was  published  in  a  Springfield  paper : 

"What  I  mean,  in  my  Reed  letter,  by  Mr.  Lincoln's 
earlier  life,  is  his  whole  life  and  history  in  Illinois. 
In  Illinois,  and  up  to  the  time  he  left  for  Washing- 
ton, he  was,  as  I  understand  it,  a  confirmed  Infidel. 
What  I  mean  by  Mr.  Lincoln's  later  life,  is  his 
Washington  life,  where  he  associated  with  religious 
people,  when  and  where  I  believe  he  thought  he 
became  a  Christian.  I  told  Mr.  Reed  all  this  just 
before  signing  the  letter  spoken  of.  I  knew  nothing 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  investigation  into  the  subject  of 
Christianity." 

He  says  that  his  evidence  "  is  a  mere  collection  of 
sayings  gathered  from  private  conversations."  It 
is  doubtless  true  that  he  had  many  private  conversa- 
tions with  Mr.  Herndon  on  this  subject ;  but  his 
published  testimony  was  all  given  at  one  sitting,  and 
more,  he  signed  that  testimony.    Every  word  attributed 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  163 

to  him  in  Lamon's  work,  and  repeated  in  this  chap- 
ter, originally  appeared  above  his  signature. 

The  concluding  words  of  his  disclaimer  are  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  While  I  do  believe  Mr.  Lincoln  to  have  been  an 
Infidel  in  his  former  life,  when  his  mind  was  as  yet 
unformed,  and  his  associations  principally  with 
rough  and  skeptical  men,  yet  I  believe  he  was  a  very 
different  man  in  later  life  ;  and  that  after  associating 
with  a  different  class  of  men,  and  investigating  the 
subject,  he  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  Christian 
religion." 

These  words,  as  modified  by  the  following,  con- 
stitute a  most  remarkable  statement : 

"In  Illinois,  and  up  to  the  time  he  left  for  Wash- 
ington, he  was,  as  I  understand  it,  a  confirmed  In- 
fidel. What  I  mean  by  Mr,  Lincoln's  later  life,  is 
his  Washington  life,  where  he  associated  with  re- 
ligious people." 

Colonel  Matheny  confines  Lincoln's  Infidelity  to 
that  portion  of  his  life  "  when  his  mind  was  as  yet 
unformed,"  and  affirms  that  this  portion  comprised 
all  the  years  preceding  his  removal  to  Washington 
in  1861.  Thus  during  the  first  fifty-two  years  of 
Lincoln's  life,  "his  mind  was  as  yet  unformed." 
His  enviable  reputation  as  one  of  the  foremost  law- 
yers of  Illinois  was  achieved  while  "  his  mind  was 
as  yet  unformed  ;"  when  his  friends  sent  him  to  Con- 


164  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

gress  "his  mind  was  as  yet  unformed;"  when  he  made 
his  Bloomingtou  speech,  "  his  mind  was  as  yet 
unformed ;"  when  he  delivered  his  famous  Spring- 
field speech,  "  his  mind  was  as  yet  unformed ;" 
when  he  conducted  his  masterly  debates  with 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  "  his  mind  was  as  yet  un- 
formed ;"  when  he  prepared  and  delivered  that 
model  of  political  addresses,  the  Cooper  In- 
stitute address,  "his  mind  was  as  yet  unformed;" 
when  at  the  Chicago  Convention  he  outstripped 
in  the  race  for  Presidential  nominee  such  emi- 
nent leaders  as  Seward  and  Chase,  "his  mind 
was  as  yet  unformed  ;"  when  he  was  elected  Chief 
Magistrate  of  this  great  nation,  "  his  mind  was  as 
yet  unformed." 

It  was  only  by  leaving  Illinois  and  going  to  Wash- 
ington that  he  was  thrown  into  religious  society. 
Washington  politicians  are  noted  for  their  piety, 
you  know.  According  to  Matheny  et  al.,  New  Salem 
was  a  second  Sodom,  Springfiehl  a  second  Gomorrah 
and  Washington  a  sort  of  New  Jerusalem,  inhabited 
chiefly  by  saints 

Neither  in  Matheny's  letter,  nor  in  his  interpreta- 
tion of  this  letter,  is  there  a  word  to  indicate  that  he 
recognized  the  fact  that  Lincoln  went  to  Washington 
to  assume  the  office  and  perform  the  duties  of  Presi- 
dent. On  the  contrary,  the  whole  tenor  of  his  re- 
marks is  to  the  e£fect  that  he  believed  the  people 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  165 

sent  him  there  on  account  of  his  wickedness,  and 
while  "  his  mind  was  as  yet  unformed,"  to  attend  a 
reform  school,  and  that  subsequently  he  entered  a 
theological  seminary,  and  there  died. 

The  most  amusing  feature  of  Matheny's  letter 
is  that  he  unwittingly  certifies  that  his  own  character 
was  not  good.  He  declares  that  Lincoln  was  an 
Infidel  because  his  associations  were  '"  with  rough 
and  skeptical  men;"  but  that  after  removing  to 
Washington  and  "  associating  with  a  different  class 
of  men "  he  became  a  Christian.  Now,  it  is  well 
known  that  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  of  his 
"rough  and  skeptical"  associates  in  Illinois  was 
James  H.  Matheny. 

Colonel  Matheny,  in  his  explanatory  remarks, 
says  :  "  I  believe  he  thought  he  became  a  Christian  ;" 
and  in  almost  the  next  breath  says,  "  I  knew  nothing 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  investigation  into  the  subject  of 
Christianity."  Can  anything  be  more  unreasonable 
than  this  ?  Colonel  Matheny  knowing  that  Lincoln 
was  a  confirmed  Infidel — an  Infidel  when  he  went  to 
"Washington — knowing  nothing  about  his  having 
afterward  investigated  Christianity — knowing  that 
he  had  no  time  for  such  an  investigation,  and  yet 
believing  that  Lincoln  thought  he  became  a  Chris- 
tian !  Why  did  he  not  mention  this  when  he  gave 
his  testimony  ?  The  fact  is,  he  did  not  believe  that 
Lincoln  became  a  Christian ;  but  with  an  orthodox 


166  ABKAHAM    LINCOLN! 

club  raised  above  liis  head,  lie  found  it  very  con- 
venient to  jj^'ofess  to  believe  it. 

As  Mr.  Reed  has  endeavored  to  prove  that  Lamon 
and  Herndon  did  not  faithfully  report  the  evidence 
of  Stuart  and  Matheny,  it  is  but  just  that  Mr.  Hern- 
don, who  took  down  their  testimony,  be  j^ermitted  to 
speak  in  his  own  defense.  In  his  Springfield  lecture, 
delivered  in  Major  Stuart's  town,  if  not  in  his  pres- 
ence, referring  to  Stuart's  testimony,  he  says  : 

"  Mr.  Stuart  did  not  write  the  note  and  no  one 
ever  said  he  did.  What  is  there  stated  was  the  sub- 
stance of  a  conversation  between  Mr.  Stuart  and  my- 
self about  Mr.  Lincoln's  religion.  I  took  down  in  a 
note  in  his  office  and  in  his  presence  his  words  and 
ideas  as  I  did  in  other  cases.  The  conversation 
spoken  of  took  place  in  Mr.  Stuart's  office,  and  in  the 
east  room.  Mr.  Stuart  does  not  deny  that  the  no^e 
is  substantially  correct.  He  simply  says  he  could 
not  have  said  that  Dr.  Smith  tried  to  convert  Mr. 
Lincoln,  and  couldn't  do  it.  I  well  remember  that 
he  did  use  this  language.  It  seemed  to  do  him  good 
to  say  it.  .  .  .  It  seems  that  Mr.  Stuart  had 
heard  that  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Dr.  Smith  had  much 
discussion  about  Christianity,  but  he  failed  to  hear 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  conversion,  or  anything  like  it,  and 
well  might  he  say,  as  he  did,  that  '  Dr.  Smith  tried 
to  convert  Mr.  Lincoln,  hut  couldn't  do  it.'  " 

Any  charitably  disposed  person,. knowing  the  gen- 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  167 

«ral  good  character  of  both  men,  instead  of  crying 
"Fraud!"  as  Reed  has  done,  will  readily  conclude 
that  Mr.  Herndon  was  mistaken,  or  that  Mr.  Stuart 
had  forgotten  just  what  he  did  say,  and  is  it  not 
more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  latter  gentle- 
man, in  the  lapse  of  six  years,  should  have  forgotten 
some  things  he  said,  than  that  Mr.  Herndon,  who 
recorded  them  the  moment  they  were  uttered,  should 
be  mistaken? 

Alluding  to  Colonel  Matheny's  evidence,  in  the 
same  lecture,  Mr.  Herndon  says  : 

"  The  next  gentleman  introduced  by  Mr.  Reed  is 
Col.  James  H.  Matheny.  He  is  made  to  say,  in  a 
letter  addressed  to  Mr.  Reed,  that  he  did  not  write 
the  statement  in  Lamon's  *Life  of  Lincoln.'  I  do  not 
claim  that  he  did.  I  wrote  it  in  the  court  house — 
this  hall — in  Mr.  Matheny's  presence,  and  at  his 
dictation.  I  read  it  over  to  him  and  he  approved  it. 
I  wrote  it  all  at  once  as  he  spoke  it  to  me ;  it  is  not 
made  up  of  scraps — *a  mere  collection  of  sayings 
gathered  from  private  conversations,  that  were  only 
true  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  earlier  life.'  I  say  tliat  this 
statement  was  written  all  at  one  time  and  place,  and 
not  at  diflferent  times  and  places.  Let  any  critic, 
any  man  of  common  sense,  read  it  and  he  will  say : 
'  This  was  all  written  at  once.'  I  appeal  to  the 
manner — the  close  connection  of  words  and  ideas  in 
which  it  runs — word  with  word,  sentence  with  sen- 


168  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

tence,  and  idea  with  idea,  for  the  proof  that  it  was 
made  at  one  sitting.  Mr.  Matheny  has  often  told 
me  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  an  lufidel.  He  admits  this 
in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Reed.  He  never  intimated  in 
that  or  any  other  conversation  with  me  that  he 
believed  that  Mr,  Lincoln  in  his  later  life  became  a 
Christian." 

In  a  letter  dated  Sept.  14,  1887,  Mr.  Herndou 
writes : 

"  I  acted  in  this  matter  honestly,  and  I  will  always 
abide  by  my  notes  taken  down  at  the  time.  I  was 
cautious — very  careful  of  what  I  did,  because  I 
knew  that  the  church  would  damn  me  and  prove  me 
false  if  it  could.  I  stood  on  the  exactness  of  truth 
squarely." 

I  have  thus  far  assumed  that  Stuart  and  Matheny 
really  wrote  the  letters  of  disclaimer  addressed  to 
Reed.  Mr.  Reed  states  that  he  is  "  amazed  to  find  " 
that  they  did  not  write  the  statements  attributed  to 
them  by  Lamon.  The  reader  is  by  this  time  suffi- 
ciently familiar  with  this  reverend  gentleman's 
methods  that  he  will  Tiot  be  **  amazed  to  find  "  that 
Stuart  and  Matheny  did  not  write  these  disclaimers. 
I  now  affirm  that  James  H.  Matheny  did  not  write  a 
word  of  the  letter  purporting  to  have  been  written 
by  him.  It  loas  written  by  the  Eev.  J.  A.  Reed  !  We 
have  not  the  expressed  declaration  of  Mr.  Stuart 
that  this  is  true  of  the  letter  imputed  to  him,  but 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  169 

there  is  other  evidence  which  makes  it  clearly  ap- 
parent that  this  letter  was  also  written  by  Mr.  Reed. 

Nor  is  this  all.  I  shall  now  endeavor  to  show 
that  the  greater  part  of  the  evidence  presented  by 
Reed,  in  his  lecture,  was  composed  and  written  by 
himself.  Let  us  take  the  four  letters  credited 
respectively  to  Edwards,  Lewis,  Stuart,  and  Matheny. 
I  shall  attempt  to  demonstrate  the  common  origin  of 
these  letters,  first,  by  their  form ;  secondly,  by  the 
language  of  their  contents. 

The  difi'erent  forms  employed  in  epistolary  corre- 
spondence are  numerous,  far  more  numerous  than 
generally  supposed.  To  illustrate  :  four  hundred 
letters,  written  by  as  many  different  persons,  and  all 
addressed  to  the  same  person,  were,  without  examina- 
tion, divided  into  one  hundred  parcels  of  four  letters 
each.  They  were  then  examined  in  regard  to  the 
form  employed  by  the  writer.  The  heading,  the  ad- 
dress, the  introduction,  and  the  subscription  were 
noted — no  attention  being  paid  to  the  body  of  the 
letter,  or  the  signature.  In  not  one  of  these  one 
hundred  parcels  were  found  four  letters  having  the 
same  form.  The  heading  of  these  letters  exhibited 
nine  different  forms ;  the  address,  fourteen ;  the 
introduction,  eight ;  and  the  subscription,  eleven. 

Again,  nearly  every  writer  employs  certain  idioms 
of  language  that  are  peculiar  to  him,  and  which 
reveal  his  identity,  even  though  he  tries  to  conceal  it. 


170  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

Let  us  now  institute  a  brief  analysis  of  the  four 
letters  under  consideration.  Errors  will  be  noticed, 
not  for  the  purpose  of  reflecting  upon  the  literary 
attainments  of  the  writer,  but  solely  with  a  view  of 
discovering  his  identity.  These  are  mostly  of  a 
trivial  character,  confined  to  marks  of  punctuation, 
etc.;  and  it  is  a  recognized  fact  that  a  majority  of 
educated  persons,  including  many  professional 
writers,  are  more  or  less  deficient  in  the  art  of 
punctuation.  In  proof  of  the  common  authorship  of 
these  four  letters,  the  following  reasons  are  sub- 
mitted : 

1.  In  all  of  them  we  recognize  a  stiff  formality — a 
studied  effort  to  conform  to  one  ideal  standard. 

2.  All  of  them  were  written  at  Springfield,  111., 
and  all  omit  the  name  of  the  state. 

3.  In  each  of  them,  the  day  of  the  month  is  fol- 
lowed by  the  suffix  "  th."  This,  if  not  wholly  im- 
proper, is  not  common  usage.  Had  these  letters 
been  written  by  the  four  persons  to  whom  they  are 
ascribed,  at  least  three  of  them  would  have  omit- 
ted it. 

4.  In  all,  but  one,  the  address  is  "  Rev.  J.  A. 
Reed,"  and  in  the  exception  the  writer  merely  sub- 
stitutes "Jas."  for  "J." 

5.  In  each  of  them  the  address  is  followed  by  a 
colon  instead  of  a  comma,  the  proper  mark  to  use. 
Had  they  been  written  by  four  persons,  it  is  possible 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  171 

that  a  part,  or  even  all,  would  have  made  an  error, 
but  it  is  highly  improbable  that  all  would  have 
made  the  same  error. 

6.  In  these  letters,  the  introductory  words  are 
uniformly  "  Dear  Sir  " — the  most  common  form  of 
introduction,  and  the  one  that  a  writer,  in  drafting 
a  letter  addressed  to  himself,  would  most  naturally 
employ. 

7.  In  every  instance,  the  introduction  is  followed 
by  a  dash  instead  of  a  colon — a  uniformity  of  error, 
again. 

8.  In  the  subscription,  the  term,  "  Yours  truly," 
is  invariably  used,  except  in  the  Lewis  letter,  which 
concludes  with  ''Tours,  etc." 

9.  The  Edwards  letter  and  the  Lewis  letter  begin 
with  the  same  idea,  expressed  in  nearly  the  same 
words.  Edwards  is  made  to  say,  "  A  short  time  after 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,"  etc.;  and  Lewis — "Not  long 
after  Dr.  Smith." 

10.  Omitting  the  introductory  sentence  in  the 
Stuart  letter,  which  is  merely  the  expansion  of  an 
idea  used  in  writing  the  Matheny  letter  on  the  pre- 
ceding day,  the  Stuart  and  Matheny  letters  begin 
with  the  same  idea.  Stuart  says :  "  The  language 
of  that  statement  is  not  mine  ;  it  was  not  written  by 
me."  Matheny  says :  "  The  language  attributed  to 
me  ...  is  not  from  my  pen.  I  did  not  write 
it."     Beed  himself  uses  substantially  the  same  Ian- 


172  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN ! 

guage  that  is  ascribed  to  them.  Had  their  state- 
ments, as  published  in  Lamon's  work,  been  forgeries, 
or  grossly  inaccurate,  they  might  have  used  the 
language  quoted  above.  Under  the  circumstances 
they  would  not  have  used  it.  Major  Stuart  and 
Colonel  Matheny  were  lawyers,  not  pettifoggers. 

11.  These  prefatory  sentences  of  Stuart  and  Ma- 
theny both  begin  with  the  same  words — "  the  lan- 
guage." 

12.  In  both  the  Edwards  and  Lewis  letters,  refer- 
ence is  made  to  a  theological  work  which  Dr.  Smith 
is  said  to  have  written.  The  writer  of  neither  letter 
is  able  to  state  the  name  of  the  book ;  Dr.  Reed  is 
unable  to  state  the  name  of  it ;  Dr.  Smith  himself 
does  not  mention  the  name  of  it ;  but  he  does 
plainly  state  that  it  was  a  work  on  the  Bible.  For 
"  the  business  he  had  on  hand,"  however,  it  suited 
Reed's  purpose  better  to  give  a  semi-erroneous  im- 
pression of  its  character,  and  so  he  affirms  that  it 
was  a  work  on  "the  evidences  of  Christianity." 
Curiously  enough,  in  the  Edwards  letter  and  again 
in  the  Lewis  letter,  the  book  is  described  as  a  work 
on  "  the  evidences  of  Christianity." 

13.  The  Edwards  letter  reports  Lincoln  as  saying : 
"I  have  been  reading  a  work  of  Dr.  Smith  on  the 
evidences  of  Christianity"  The  Lewis  letter  repre- 
sents him  as  saying  that  "  He  had  seen  and  partially 
read  a  worlc  of  Dr.  Smith  on  the  evidences  of  Christian- 


WAS   HE  A  OHEISTIAN?  173 

t^y."     Here  are  ten  consecutive  words  in  the  two 
letters  identical. 

14.  Mr.  Reed,  in  his  lecture,  never  once  uses  the 
word  "  Christianity,"  except  as  above  noticed  to  de- 
scribe Dr.  Smith's  book ;  he  always  uses  the  words 
"  the  Christian  religion  "—employing  this  term  no 
less  than  seven  times.  This  usage  is  not  common. 
An  examination  of  various  theological  writings  shows 
that  "  Christianity  "  is  used  twenty  times  where  "  the 
Christian  religion  "  is  used  once.  Yet  in  these  letters 
the  word  "  Christianity  "  is  not  to  be  found,  except  in 
the  same  sense  as  used  by  Dr.  Reed,  while  "  the  Chris- 
tian religion "  occurs  in  each  of  the  four  letters. 

15.  "  The  truth  of  the  Christian  religion "  is  a 
favorite  phrase  with  Reed,  occurring  three  times  in 
his  lecture.  This  phrase  also  occurs  three  times  in 
these  letters — once  in  the  Edwards  letter,  and  twice 
in  the  Stuart  letter. 

16.  Reed  has  much  to  say  about  Lincoln's  "life 
and  religious  sentiments  ;"  in  fact,  his  lecture  is 
entitled,  *'  The  Later  Life  and  Religious  Sentiments 
of  Abraham  Lincoln."  In  the  Matheny  letter,  too, 
we  find  "Mr.  Lincoln's  life  and  religious  senti- 
ments." 

17.  The  words  "  earlier "  and  "  later "  are  fre- 
quently used  by  Reed  in  connection  with  Lincoln's 
life.  The  same  words  are  used  in  the  Stuart  and 
Matheny  letters,  and  in  the  same  connection. 


174  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  ! 

18.  The  Stuart  letter  is,  for  the  most  part,  de- 
voted to  the  narration  of  "  some  facts  "  which  Mr. 
Stuart  is  said  to  have  presented  to  Mr.  Herndon, 
beginning  with  this  :  "  That  Eddie,  a  child  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  died  in  1848  or  1849,"  etc.  Now,  Mr. 
Stuart  well  knew  that,  during  all  this  time,  Mr. 
Herndon  was  the  intimate  associate  of  Lincoln  and 
thoroughly  familiar  with  every  event  in  his  history. 
The  *'  facts  "  given  in  this  letter  are  not  such  as  Mr. 
Stuart  would  have  communicated  to  Mr.  Herndon, 
but  they  are  such  as  Mr.  Reed  would  naturally 
desire  to  place  before  the  public. 

19.  Nothing  in  Dr.  Reed's  career  has  excited  his 
vanity  more  than  the  fact  that  he  was  pastor  of  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Springfield — the  church 
which  Lincoln  once  attended.  Consequently,  the 
"  First  Presbyterian  Church  "  is  a  conspicuous  ob- 
ject in  his  lecture,  and  nowhere  is  it  more  conspic- 
uous than  in  these  letters.  In  the  Stuart  letter  it 
appears  three  times,  and  the  writer  never  fails  to 
state  that  it  was  the  "  First  Presbyterian  Church  " 
—the  church  of  which  Dr.  Reed  was  pastor. 

20.  According  to  the  principle  of  accretion,  if  two 
articles  or  letters  are  written  on  the  same  subject, 
the  second  will  usually  be  longer  than  the  first. 
This  is  true  of  these  letters.  The  Lewis  letter,  re- 
lating to  Smith's  reputed  conversion  of  Lincoln, 
was  written  after  the  Edwards  letter  relative  to  the 


WA8   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  176 

same  subject,  and  is  longer.  The  Stuart  disclaimer, 
■which  is  the  longer  of  the  two,  was  written  after  the 
Mathenj  disclaimer. 

From  the  foregoing,  is  it  not  clearly  evident  that 
these  four  letters  were  all  written  by  the  same  per- 
son ?  If  so,  then  knowing  that  Dr.  Reed  wrote  one 
of  them,  the  Matheny  letter,  does  it  not  necessarily 
follow  that  he  wrote  them  all  ? 

In  the  Gurley  testimony,  such  expressions  as  "the 
Christian  religion"  and  "  the  truth  of  the  Christian 
religion,"  together  with  the  Eeed  story  concerning 
Lincoln's  intention  of  making  a  profession  of  relig- 
ion, reveal  the  authorship  of  this  testimony  also. 


:'^!lfe 


176  ABEAHAM  LINCOLN: 


CHAPTER  IX. 

TESTIMONY    OF    THE    REMAINING   WITNESSES    PRESENTED 
BY  LAMON. 

Dr.  C.  H.  Ray — Wm.  H.  Hannah,  Esq. — James  W.  Keys — Hon. 
Jesse  W.  Fell— Col.  John  G.  Nicolay— Hon.  David  Davis— Mrs.  Mary 
Lincoln — Injustice  to  Mrs.  Lincoln — Answer  to  Reed's  Pretended  Ref- 
utation of  the  Testimony  of  Lamon's  Witnesses. 

Seven  of  Lamon's  witnesses — Ray,  Hannah,  Keys, 
Fell,  Nicolay,  Davis,  and  Mrs.  Lincoln — remain  to 
testify.  The  testimony  of  these  witnesses  will  now 
be  presented. 

DR.    C.  H.  RAY. 

Dr.  Ray,  editor  of  the  Chicago  Tribune,  a  promi- 
nent figure  in  Illinois  politics  thirty  years  ago,  and 
a  personal  friend  and  admirer  of  Lincoln,  testifies  as 
follows : 

"You  knew  Mr.  Lincoln  far  better  than  I  did, 
though  I  knew  him  well ;  and  jou  have  served  up 
his  leading  characteristics  in  a  way  that  I  should 
despair  of  doing,  if  I  should  try.  I  have  only  one 
thing  to  ask  :  that  you  do  not  give  Calvinistic  theol- 
ogy a  chance  to  claim  him  as  one  of  its  saints  and 
martyrs.     He  went  to  the  Old  School  Church ;  but, 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  177 

in  spite  of  that  outward  assent  to  the  horrible 
dogmas  of  the  sect,  I  have  reason  from  himself  to 
know  that  his  *  vital  purity,'  if  that  means  belief  in 
the  impossible,  was  of  a  negative  sort"  (Lamon'a 
Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  489,  490). 

Dr.  Eay  states  that  Lincoln  held  substantially  the 
same  theological  opinions  as  those  held  by  Theodore 
Parker. 

WILLIAM  H.  HANNAH. 

A  leading  member  of  the  Bloomington  bar, 
when  Lincoln  practiced  there,  was  Wm.  H. 
Hannah.  He  was  an  honest,  truthful  man,  and 
knew  Lincoln  well.  Concerning  Lincoln's  views 
on  the  doctrine  of  endless  punishment,  Mr.  Han- 
nah says  : 

"  Since  1856  Mr.  Lincoln  told  me  that  he  was  a 
kind  of  immortalist ;  but  that  he  never  could  bring 
himself  to  believe  in  eternal  punishment ;  that  man 
lived  but  a  little  while  here,  and  that,  if  eternal 
punishment  were  man's  doom,  he  should  spend  that 
little  life  in  vigilant  and  ceaseless  preparation  by 
never-ending  prayer  "  (Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  489). 

JAMES  W.  KEYS. 

Mr.  Jas.  W.  Keys,  an  old  and  respected  citizen  of 
Springfield,  who  became  acquainted  with  Lincoln 
soon  after  his  removal  there,  and  who  had  many  con- 


178  ABEAHAM   LINCOLN: 

versations   with   him   on   the   subject  of  theology, 
says : 

"  As  to  the  Christian  theory,  that  Christ  is  God, 
or  equal  to  the  Creator,  he  said  that  it  had  better 
be  taken  for  granted  ;  for,  by  the  test  of  reason,  we 
might  become  Infidels  on  that  subject,  for  evidence 
of  Christ's  divinity  came  to  us  in  a  somewhat  doubt- 
ful shape  "  (Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  490). 

HON.  JESSE  W.  FELL. 

Jesse  W.  Fell,  who  died  at  Bloomington  in  the 
spring  of  1887,  was  one  of  the  best  known  and  most 
highly  respected  citizens  of  Illinois.  He  was  Secre- 
tary of  the  Republican  State  Central  Commitee  dur- 
ing the  memorable  Lincoln-Douglas  campaign,  and 
was  largely  instrumental  in  bringing  Lincoln  forward 
as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  in  1860.  It  was 
for  him  that  Lincoln  wrote  an  autobiographical 
sketch  of  his  life,  which  formed  the  basis  of  his  cam- 
paign biographies,  the  facsimile  of  which  appears 
in  Lamon's  "  Life  of  Lincoln,"  and  in  the  "  Lincoln 
Memorial  Album."  Mr.  Fell  was  a  Christian  of  the 
Unitarian  denomination,  and  there  were  few  men  for 
whom  Lincoln  had  a  more  profound  respect.  The 
following  is  his  testimony  : 

"  Though  everything  relating  to  the  character  of 
this  extraordinary  personage  is  of  interest,  and 
should  be  fairly  stated  to  the  world,  I  enter  upon  the 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  179 

performance  of  this  duty — for  so  I  regard  it — with 
some  reluctance,  arising  from  the  fact  that,  in  stating 
my  convictions  on  the  subject,  I  must  necessarily 
place  myself  in  opposition  to  quite  a  number  who 
have  written  on  this  topic  before  me,  and  whose 
views  largely  pre-occupy  the  public  mind.  This 
latter  fact,  whilst  contributing  to  my  embarrassment 
on  this  subject,  is,  perhaps,  the  strongest  reason, 
however,  why  the  truth  in  this  matter  should  be 
fully  disclosed ;  and  I  therefore  yield  to  your  request. 
If  there  were  any  traits  of  character  that  stood  out 
in  bold  relief  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  they 
were  those  of  truth  and  candor.  He  was  utterly  in- 
capable of  insincerity,  or  professing  views  on  this 
or  any  other  subject  he  did  not  entertain. 
Knowing  such  to  be  his  true  character,  that  insin- 
cerity, much  more  duplicity,  were  traits  wholly 
foreign  to  his  nature,  many  of  his  old  friends  were 
not  a  little  surprised  at  finding,  in  some  of  the 
biographies  of  this  great  man,  statements  concerning 
his  religious  opinions  so  utterly'  at  variance  with  his 
known  sentiments.  True,  he  may  have  changed  or 
modified  those  sentiments  after  his  removal  from 
among  us,  though  this  is  hardly  reconcilable  with 
the  history  of  the  man,  and  his  entire  devotion  to 
public  matters  during  his  four  years'  residence  at 
the  national  capital.  It  is  possible,  however,  that 
this  may  be  the  proper  solution  of  this  conflict  oi 


180  ABBAHAM    LINCOLN: 

opinions ;  or,  it  may  be,  that,  witli  no  intention  on 
the  part  of  anyone  to  mislead  the  public  mind,  those 
who  have  represented  him  as  believing  in  the 
popular  theological  views  of  the  times  may  have  mis- 
apprehended him,  as  experience  shows  to  be  quite 
common  where  no  special  effort  has  been  made  to 
attain  critical  accuracy  on  a  subject  of  this  nature. 
This  is  the  more  probable  from  the  well-known  fact 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  seldom  communicated  to  anyone 
his  views  on  this  subject.  But,  be  this  as  it  may,  I 
have  no  hesitation  whatever  in  saying  that,  whilst 
he  held  many  opinions  in  common  with  the  great 
mass  of  Christian  believers,  he  did  not  believe  in 
what  are  regarded  as  the  orthodox  or  evangelical 
views  of  Christianity. 

"  On  the  innate  depravity  of  man,  the  character 
and  office  of  the  great  head  of  the  church,  the  atone- 
ment, the  infallibility  of  the  written  revelation,  the 
performance  of  miracles,  the  nature  and  design  of 
present  and  future  rewards  and  punishments  (as 
they  are  popularly  called)  and  many  other  subjects, 
he  held  opinions  utterly  at  variance  with  what  are 
usually  taught  in  the  church.  I  should  say  that  his 
expressed  views  on  these  and  kindred  topics  were 
such  as,  in  the  estimation  of  most  believers,  would 
place  him  entirely  outside  the  Christian  pale.  Yet, 
to  my  mind,  such  was  not  the  true  posiciou,  since  his 
principles  and  practices  and  the  spirit  of  his  whole 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  181 

life  were  of  the  very  kind  we  universally  agree  to 
call  Christian ;  and  I  think  this  conclusion  is  in  no 
wise  affected  bj  the  circumstance  that  he  never  at- 
tached himself  to  any  religious  society  whatever. 

"  His  religious  views  were  eminently  practical, 
and  are  summed  up,  as  I  think,  in  these  two  proposi- 
tions :  '  the  fatherhood  of  God,  and  the  brotherhood 
of  man.'  He  fully  believed  in  a  superintending  and 
overruling  Providence  that  guides  and  controls  the 
operations  of  the  world,  but  maintained  that  law  and 
order,  and  not  their  violation  or  suspension,  are 
the  appointed  means  by  which  this  Providence  is 
exercised. 

"  I  will  not  attempt  any  specification  of  either  his 
belief  or  disbelief  on  various  religious  topics,  as  de- 
rived from  conversations  with  him  at  different  times 
during  a  considerable  period;  but,  as  conveying  a 
general  view  of  his  religious  or  theological  opinions, 
will  state  the  following  facts  :  Some  eight  or  ten 
years  prior  to  his  death,  in  conversing  with  him  on 
this  subject,  the  writer  took  occasion  to  refer,  in 
terms  of  approbation,  to  the  sermons  and  writings 
generally  of  Dr.  W.  E.  Channing ;  and,  finding  he 
was  considerably  interested  in  the  statement  I  made 
of  the  opinions  held  by  that  author,  I  proposed  to 
present  him  a  copy  of  Channing's  entire  works, 
which  I  soon  after  did.  Subsequently,  the  contents 
of   these   volumes,   together   with   the   writings   of 


182  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

Theodore  Parker,  furnished  him,  as  he  informed  me, 
by  his  friend  and  law-partner,  Mr.  Herndon,  became 
naturally  the  topics  of  conversation  Avith  us ;  and 
though  far  from  believing  there  was  an  entire  har- 
mony of  views  on  his  part  with  either  of  those 
authors,  yet  they  were  generally  much  admired  and 
approved  by  him. 

"  No  religious  views  with  him  seemed  to  find  any 
favor,  except  of  the  practical  and  rationalistic  order  ; 
and  if,  from  my  recollections  on  this  subject,  I  was 
called  upon  to  designate  an  author  whose  views  most 
nearly  represented  Mr.  Lincoln's  on  this  subject,  I 
would  say  that  author  was  Theodore  Parker. 

"As  you  have  asked  from  me  a  candid  statement 
of  my  recollections  on  this  topic,  I  have  thus  briefly 
given  them,  with  the  hope  that  they  may  be  of  some 
service  in  rightly  settling  a  question  about  which — 
as  I  have  good  reason  to  believe — the  public  mind 
has  been  greatly  misled.  Not  doubting  that  they 
will  accord,  substantially,  with  your  own  recollec- 
tions, and  that  of  his  other  intimate  and  confidential 
friends,  and  with  the  popular  verdict  after  this  mat- 
ter shall  have  been  properly  canvassed,  I  submit 
them  "  (Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  490-492). 

Mr,  Fell's  testimony  is  full  and  explicit.  He 
affirms  that  Lincoln  rejected  nearly  all  the  leading 
tenets  of  orthodox  Christianity ;  the  inspiration  of 
(be  ScriptareSi  the  divlQity  of  Christ,  the  innate  de- 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  183 

pravity  of  man,  the  atonement,  the  performance  of 
miracles,  and  future  rewards  and  punishments. 
"  His  expressed  views  on  these  and  kindred  topics," 
Mr.  Fell  says,  "  were  such  as,  iu  the  estimation  of 
most  believers,  would  place  him  entirely  outside  the 
Christian  pale."  Mr.  Fell,  himself,  was  not  disposed 
to  withhold  from  Lincoln  the  appellation  of  Chris- 
tian, but  it  was  only  because  he  stood  upon  the  broad 
Liberal  Christian,  or  rather  non-Christian,  platform 
which  permitted  him  to  welcome  a  Theist,  like 
Parker ;  a  Pantheist,  like  Emerson ;  or  even  an 
Agnostic,  like  Ingersoll. 

COL.  JOHN  G.  N I  CO  LAY. 

The  next  witness  introduced  by  Lamon,  is  Col. 
John  G.  Nicolay,  Lincoln's  private  secretary  at  the 
"White  House.  Nicolay's  relations  with  the  President 
were  more  intimate  than  those  of  any  other  man. 
To  quote  the  words  of  Lincoln's  partner,  "  Mr.  Lin- 
coln loved  him  and  trusted  him."  His  testimony  is 
among  the  most  important  that  this  controversy  has 
elicited.  It  proves  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt 
that  all  these  stories  concerning  Lincoln's  alleged 
conversation  at  Washington  are  false,  that  he  did  not 
change  his  belief,  that  he  died  as  he  had  always 
lived — a  Freethinker.  In  a  letter  written  May  27, 
1865,  just  six  weeks  after  Lincoln's  death,  Colonel 
Nicolay  says : 


184  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not,  to  my  knowledge,  in  any  way, 
change  his  religious  ideas,  opinions  or  beliefs,  from 
the  time  he  left  Springfield  till  the  day  of  his  death. 
I  do  not  know  just  what  they  were,  never  having 
heard  him  explain  them  in  detail,  but  I  am  very  sure 
he  gave  no  outward  indications  of  his  mind  having 
undergone  any  change  in  that  regard  while  here " 
(Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  492). 

HON.  DAVID  DAVIS. 

One  of  the  most  important,  and  in  some  respects 
the  most  eminent  witness  summoned  to  testify  in 
regard  to  this  question,  is  the  Hon.  David  Davis.  In 
moral  character  he  stood  above  reproach,  in  intel- 
lectual ability,  almost  without  a  peer.  Every  step  in 
his  career  was  marked  by  unswerving  integrity  and 
freedom  from  prejudice.  His  rulings  and  decisions 
in  the  lower  courts  of  Illinois,  and  on  the  bench  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  commanded 
universal  respect.  As  a  legislator,  his  love  of  truth 
and  justice  prevented  him  from  being  a  political 
partisan.  As  United  States  Senator  and  Vice-Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  the  party  that  elected  him 
could  obtain  his  support  for  no  measure  that  he 
deemed  unjust.  Referring  to  his  acquaintance  with 
Lincoln,  Judge  Davis  says :  "  I  enjoyed  for  over 
twenty  years  the  personal  friendship  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 
We  were  admitted  to  the  bar  about  the  same  time, 


WAS  HE   A  CHRISTIAN?  185 

and  traveled  for  many  years  what  is  known  in 
Illinois  as  the  Eighth  Judicial  Circuit.  In  1848, 
when  I  first  went  on  the  bench,  the  circuit  embraced 
fourteen  counties,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  went  with  the 
court  to  every  county."  A  large  portion  of  this  time 
they  passed  in  each  other's  company.  They  often 
rode  in  the  same  vehicle,  generally  ate  at  the  same 
table,  and  not  infrequently  slept  together  in  the 
same  bed.  The  closest  intimacy  existed  between 
them  as  long  as  Lincoln  lived,  and  when  he  died, 
Mr.  Davis  became  his  executor.  Judge  Davis  would 
not  intentionally  have  misrepresented  the  opinions 
of  an  enemy,  much  less  the  opinions  of  his  dear  dead 
friend.  Briefly,  yet  clearly,  he  defines  the  theolog- 
ical views  of  Lincoln : 

"  He  had  no  faith,  in  the  Christian  sense  of  the 
term — had  faith  in  laws,  principles,  causes,  and 
effects — philosophically  "  (Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  489). 

Speaking  of  the  many  stories  that  had  been  circu- 
lated concerning  Lincoln's  religious  belief,  such  as 
the  Bateman  and  Vinton  interviews,  together  with 
the  various  pious  speeches  he  is  reported  to  have 
made  to  religious  committees  and  delegations  that 
visited  him,  such  as  his  reputed  speech  to  the 
Negroes  of  Baltimore,  Judge  Davis  says  : 

"  The  idea  that  Lincoln  talked  to  a  stranger  about 
his  religion  or  religious  views,  or  made  such 
speeches,  remarks,  &c.,  about  it  as  are  published,  is 


186  ABEAHAM  LINCOLN: 

to  me  absurd.  I  knew  the  man  so  well.  He  was  the 
most  reticent,  secretive  man  I  ever  saw,  or  expect  to 
see  "  (Ibid). 

MRS,  MARY  LINCOLN. 

But  one  of  Lamon's  witnesses  remains — the  wife  of 
the  martyred  President.  Her  testimony  ought  of 
itself  to  put  this  matter  at  rest  forever.  Mrs.  Lin- 
coln says : 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  had  no  hope,  and  no  faith,  in  the 
usual  acceptation  of  those  words  "  (Life  of  Lincoln, 
p.  489). 

In  addition  to  what  Colonel  Lamon  has  presented, 
Mrs.  Lincoln  also  stated  the  following : 

"  Mr.  Lincoln's  maxim  and  philosophy  were, 
*  What  is  to  be,  will  be,  and  no  prayers  of  ours  can 
arrest  the  decree.'  He  never  joined  any  church.  He 
was  a  religious  man  always,  I  think,  but  was  not  a 
technical  Christian  "  (Herndon's  "  Religion  of  Lin- 
coln "). 

It  may  be  charged  that  Mrs.  Lincoln  subsequently 
repudiated  a  portion  of  this  testimony.  In  anticipa- 
tion of  such  a  charge  I  will  here  state  a  few  facts. 
This  testimony  was  given  by  Mrs.  Lincoln  in  1865. 
When  it  was  given,  while  her  heart  was  pierced  by 
the  pangs  of  her  great  grief,  her  mind  was  sound. 
About  Jan.  1,  1874,  a  brief  article,  purporting  to 
come  from  her  pen,  appeared,  in  which  the  testimony 


WAS   HE  A   CHKISTLiN?  187 

attributed  to  her  was  in  part  denied.  At  the  time 
this  denial  was  written,  Mrs.  Lincoln  had  been  for 
more  than  two  years  insane.  The  chief  cause  in  de- 
throning her  reason  was  the  death  of  her  universally 
beloved  Tad  (Thomas),  which  occurred  on  July  15, 
1871.  Referring  to  this  sad  event,  Mr.  Arnold,  one 
of  the  principal  witnesses  on  the  Christian  side  of 
this  controversy,  says :  "  From  this  time  Mrs.  Lin- 
coln, in  the  judgment  of  her  most  intimate  friends, 
was  never  entirely  responsible  for  her  conduct " 
(Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  439). 

The  only  effect  of  this  denial  on  the  minds  of  those 
acquainted  with  the  circumstances,  was  to  excite  a 
mingled  feeling  of  pity  and  disgust — pity  for  this 
unfortunate  woman,  and  disgust  for  the  contemptible 
methods  of  those  who  would  take  advantage  of  her 
demented  condition  and  make  her  contradict  the 
honest  statements  of  her  rational  life. 

Before  dismissing  this  witness,  I  wish  to  advert 
to  a  subject  with  which  many  of  my  readers  are 
familiar.  For  years,  both  before  and  after  Lincoln's 
death,  the  religious  press  of  the  country  was  contin- 
ually abusing  Mrs.  Lincoln.  If  a  ball  was  held  at  the 
White  House,  she  became  at  once  the  recipient  of 
unlimited  abuse.  If  Lincoln  attended  the  theater, 
she  was  accused  of  having  dragged  him  there  against 
his  will.  It  was  almost  uniformly  asserted  that  he 
would  not  have  gone  to  the  theater  on  that  fatal 


188  ABE  AH  AM    LINCOLN: 

night  had  it  not  been  for  her,  and  in  not  a  few  in- 
stances it  was  infamously  hinted  that  she  was  cogni- 
zant of  the  plot  to  murder  him.  But  even  the  Eev. 
Dr.  Miner,  who  was  acquainted  with  the  facts,  is 
willing  to  vindicate  her  from  these  imputations.  He 
says  :  "  It  has  been  said  that  Mrs.  Lincoln  urged  her 
husband  to  go  to  the  theater  against  his  will.  This 
is  not  true.  On  the  contrary,  she  tried  to  persuade 
him  not  to  go." 

Lincoln's  biographers  have,  for  the  most  part,  en- 
deavored to  do  his  wife  justice,  and  have  rebuked  the 
insults  showered  upon  her.  Alluding  to  President 
and  Mrs.  Lincoln,  Mr.  Herndou  says:  "All  that  I  know 
ennobles  both."  Colonel  Lamon  says :  "  Almost  ever 
since  Mr.  Lincoln's  death  a  portion  of  the  press  has 
never  tired  of  heaping  brutal  reproaches  upon  his 
wife  and  widow,  whilst  a  certain  class  of  his  friends 
thought  they  were  honoring  his  memory  by  multi- 
plying outrages  and  indignities  upon  her  at  the  very 
moment  when  she  was  broken  by  want  and  sorrow, 
defamed,  defenseless,  in  the  hands  of  thieves,  and  at 
the  mercy  of  spies."  Mr.  Arnold  says  :  '"  There  is 
nothing  in  American  history  so  unmanly,  so  devoid 
of  every  chivalric  impulse  as  the  treatment  of  this 
poor,  broken-hearted  woman." 

The  evidence  of  Colonel  Lamon's  ten  witnesses 
has  now  been  presented.  This  evidence  includes,  in 
addition  to  the  testimony  of  other  intimate  friends, 


WAS  HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  189 

the  testimony  of  his  wife  ;  the  testimony  of  his  first 
law  partner,  Hon.  John  T.  Stuart ;  the  testimony  of 
his  last  law  partner,  Hon.  Wm.  H.  Herndon ;  the  tes- 
timony of  his  friend  and  political  adviser,  Col.  James 
H.  Matheny  ;  the  testimony  of  his  private  secretary, 
Col.  John  G.  Nicolay  ;  and  the  testimony  of  his  life- 
long friend  and  executor  after  death.  Judge  David 
Davis.  No  one  can  read  this  evidence  and  then 
honestly  affirm  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  Chris- 
tian. This  is  the  evidence,  the  perusal  of  which  so 
thoroughly  enraged  that  good  Christian  biographer, 
Dr.  J.  G.  Holland ;  this  is  the  evidence,  the  truthful- 
ness of  which  the  Kev.  J.  A.  Reed,  unmindful  of  the 
fate  of  Ananias,  attempted  to  deny. 

As  a  full  and  just  answer  to  this  attempted  refuta- 
tion of  Lamon's  witnesses  by  Reed,  I  quote  from  the 
New  York  World  the  following  : 

"  This  individual  testimony  is  clear  and  over- 
whelming, without  the  documentary  and  other  evi- 
dence scattered  profusely  through  the  rest  of  the 
volume.  How  does  Mr.  Reed  undertake  to  refute 
it?  In  the  first  place,  firstly,  he  pronounces  it  a 
'libel,'  and  in  the  second  place,  secondly,  he  is 
'  amazed  to  find  ' — and  he  says  he  has  found — that 
the  principal  witnesses  take  exception  to  Mr. 
Lamon's  report  of  their  evidence.  This  might  have 
been  true  of  many  or  all  of  Mr.  Lamon's  witnesses 
without  exciting  the  wonder  of  a  rational  man.     Few 


190  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

persons,   indeed,   are   willing    to   endure    reproaeli 
merely  for  the  truth's  sake,  and  popular  opinion  in 
the  Eepublican  party  of  Springfield,  111.,  is  probably 
very  much  against  Mr.  Lamon.     It  would,  therefore, 
be  quite  in  the  natural  order  if  some  of  his  witnesses 
who  find  themselves  unexpectedly  in  print  should 
succumb   to   the   social   and   political  terrorism  of 
their  place  and  time,  and  attempt  to  modify  or  ex- 
plain their  testimony.     They  zealously  assisted  Mr. 
Herndon   in  ascertaining  the  truth,  and  while  they 
wanted  him  to  tell  it  in  full  they  were  prudently  re- 
solved to  keep  their  own  names  snugly  out  of  sight. 
But   Mr.    Eeed's   statement   is   not   true,    and    his 
amazement  is  entirely  simulated.     Two  only  out  of 
the  ten  witnesses  have  gratified  him  by  inditing,  at 
his  request,  weak  and  guarded  complaints  of  unfair 
treatment.     These  are  John  T.  Stuart,  a  relative  of 
the   Lincolns    and   Edwardses,   and   Jim    Matheny, 
both  of  Springfield,  whom  Mr.  Lincoln  taught  his 
peculiar  doctrines,  but  who  may  by  this   time  be 
deacons   in   Mr.   Eeed's  church.     Neither   of   them 
helps   Mr.    Eeed's   case   a  particle.     Their  epistles 
open,   as  if  by  concert,  in  form  and  words  almost 
identical.     They  say  they  did  not  write  the  language 
attributed  to  them.     The  denial  is  wholly  unneces- 
sary,  for   nobody   affirms   that   they   did    write    it. 
They   talked   and   Mr.  Herndon  wrote.     His  notes 
were   made   when   the   conversation   occurred,   and 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  191 

probably  in  their  presence.  At  all  events,  they  are 
both  so  conscious  of  the  general  accuracy  of  his  re- 
port that  they  do  not  venture  to  deny  a  single  word 
of  it,  but  content  themselves  with  lamenting  that 
something  else,  which  they  did  not  say,  was  excluded 
from  it.  They  both,  however,  in  these  very  letters, 
repeat  emphatically  the  material  part  of  the  state- 
ments made  by  them  to  Mr.  Herndon,  namely,  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  to  their  certain  knowledge,  until  a 
very  late  period  of  his  life,  an  '  Infidel,'  and  neither 
of  them  is  able  to  tell  when  he  ceased  to  be  an  Infi- 
del and  when  he  began  to  be  a  Christian.  And  this 
is  all  Mr.  Reed  makes  by  his  re-examination  of  the 
two  persons  whom  he  is  pleased  to  exalt  as  Mr. 
Lamon's  *  principal  witnesses.'  They  are  but  two 
out  of  the  ten.  "What  of  the  other  eight  ?  They 
have  no  doubt  been  tried  and  plied  b}^  Mr.  Heed  and 
his  friends  to  no  purpose  ;  they  stand  fast  by  the 
record.  But  Mr.  Reed  is  to  be  shamed  neither  by 
their  speech  nor  their  silence." 


192  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 


CHAPTER  X. 

TESTIMONY  OF  LINCOLN'S    RELATIVES   AND   INTIMATE   AS- 
SOCLiTES. 

Mr3.  Sarah  Lincoln — Dennis  P.  Hanks — Mrs.  Matilda  Moore — John 
Hall — Wm.  McNeely — "Wm.  G.  Green — Joshua  F.  Speed — Green  Caru- 
thers — John  Decamp — Mr.  Lynan — James  B.  Spaulding — Ezra  String- 
ham — Dr.  G.  H  Ambrose — J.  H.  Chenery — Squire  Perkins — W.  Per- 
kins— James  Gorley — Dr.  Wm.  Jayne — Jesse  K.  Dubois — Hon.  Joseph 
Gillespie — Judge  Stephen  T.  Logan — Hon.  Leonard  Swett. 

Were  I  to  rest  my  case  here,  the  evidence  already 
adduced  is  sufficient,  I  think,  to  couviuce  any  un- 
prejudiced miud  that  Lincoln  was  not  a  Christiau. 
But  I  do  not  propose  to  rest  here.  I  have  presented 
the  testimony  of  half  a  score  of  witnesses  ;  before  I 
lay  down  my  pen  I  shall  present  the  testimony  of 
nearly  ten  times  as  many  more. 

In  this  chapter  will  be  given  the  testimony  of 
some  of  the  relatives  and  intimate  associates  of  Lin- 
coln. The  testimony  of  his  relatives  confirms  the 
claim  that  he  was  not  religious  in  his  youth ;  the 
others  testify  to  his  unbelief  while  a  resident  of  New 
Salem  and  Springfield. 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  193 


MRS.  SARAH  LINCOLN, 


If  there  was  one  person  to  whom  Lincoln  was 
more  indebted  than  to  any  other,  it  was  his  step- 
mother, Sally  Lincoln,  a  beautiful  woman — beautiful 
not  only  in  face  and  form,  but  possessed  of  a  most 
lovely  character.  She  was  not  highly  educated,  but 
she  loved  knowledge,  and  inspired  in  her  step-son  a 
love  for  books.  She  was  a  Christian,  but  she 
attached  more  importance  to  deed  than  to  creed. 
She  loved  Lincoln.  After  his  death  she  said  :  "  He 
was  dutiful  to  me  always.  I  think  he  loved  me  truly. 
I  had  a  son,  John,  who  was  raised  with  Abe.  Both 
were  good  boys ;  but  I  must  say,  both  now  being 
dead,  that  Abe  was  the  best  boy  I  ever  saw,  or  expect 
to  see."  Lincoln  was  too  good  and  too  great  not  to 
appreciate  this  woman's  care  and  affection. 

When  the  materials  for  Lincoln's  biography  were 
being  collected,  Mrs.  Lincoln  was  considered  the 
most  reliable  source  from  which  to  obtain  the  facts 
pertaining  to  his  boyhood.  Her  recollections  of  him 
were  recorded  with  the  utmost  care.  His  Christian 
biographers,  in  order  to  make  a  Sunday-school  hero 
of  him,  have  declared  him  to  be  a  youth  remarkable 
for  his  Christian  piety  and  his  love  of  the  Bible. 
The  statements  of  Mrs.  Lincoln  disprove  this  claim. 
The  substance  of  her  testimony,  as  given  by  Lamon, 
is  given  as  follows  : 


194  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN! 

"  His  step-mother — herself  a  Christian,  and  long- 
ing for  the  least  sign  of  faith  in  him — could  remem- 
ber no  circumstance  that  supported  her  hope.  On 
the  contrary,  she  recollected  very  well  that  he  never 
went  off  into  a  corner,  as  has  been  said,  to  ponder 
the  sacred  writings,  and  to  wet  the  page  with  his 
tears  of  penitence  "  (Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  486,  487). 

"  The  Bible,  according  to  Mrs.  Lincoln,  was  not  one 
of  his  studies  ;  *  he  sought  more  congenial  books.' 
At  that  time  he  neither  talked  nor  read  upon  religious 
subjects.  If  he  had  any  opinions  about  them,  he 
kept  them  to  himself"     (Ibid,  p.  38). 

DENNIS  F.  HANKS. 

The  next  witness  is  Lincoln's  cousin,  Dennis 
Hanks.  Mr.  Hanks  held  "  the  pulpy,  red,  little 
Lincoln"  in  his  arms  before  he  was  "twenty-four 
hours  old,"  and  remained  his  constant  companion 
during  all  the  years  that  he  lived  in  Kentucky  and 
Indiana.  He  lived  a  part  of  the  time  in  the  Lincoln 
family,  and  married  one  of  Lincoln's  step-sisters.  I 
met  him  recently  at  Charleston,  111.  With  evident 
delight  he  rehearsed  the  story  of  Lincoln's  boyhood, 
and  reaffirmed  the  truthfulness  of  the  following 
statements  attributed  to  him  by  Lincoln's  biogra- 
phers : 

"  Abe  wasn't  in  early  life  a  religious  man.  He  was 
a  moral  man  strictly.     ...     In  after  life  he  be- 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  195 

came  more  religious ;  but  the  Bible  puzzled  him, 
especially  the  miracles  "  (E very-Day  Life  of  Lin- 
coln, p.  54). 

*"  Religious  songs  did  not  appear  to  suit  him  at 
all,'  says  Dennis  Hanks  ;  but  of  profane  ballads  and 
amorous  ditties  he  knew  the  words  of  a  vast 
number. 

•         •••••••• 

"  Another  was : 

'  Hail  Columbia,  happy  land  1 
If  you  ain't  drunk,  I'll  be  damned,' 

a  song  which  Dennis  thinks  should  be  warbled  only 
in  the  'fields;'  and  tells  us  they  knew  and  enjoyed 
'  all  such  songs  as  this '  "  (Lamon's  Life  of  Lincoln, 
-pp.  58,  59). 

The  fitness  of  the  above  coarse  travesty  to  be 
warbled,  even  in  the  fields,  may  well  be  doubted. 
Lamon  would  hardly  have  recorded  it,  and  I  cer- 
tainly should  not  quote  it,  but  for  the  fact  that  it 
strikingly  illustrates  one  phase  of  Lincoln's  "  youth- 
ful piety." 

Among  the  many  Christian  hymns  which  Lincoln 
parodied,  Mr.  Hanks  recalls  the  following  : 

"  How  tedious  and  tasteless  the  hours." 
"  "When  I  can  read  my  title  clear." 
"  Oh!  to  grace  how  great  a  debtor  I" 
"  Come,  thou  fount  of  every  blessing." 


196  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

MRS.  MATILDA  MOORE. 

Mrs.  Lincoln's  first  husband  was  named  Johnston. 
By  him  she  had  three  children,  a  son  and  two  daugh- 
ters. The  latter,  like  their  mother,  developed  into 
noble  specimens  of  womanhood ;  and  both  loved 
Lincoln  as  tenderly  as  though  he  had  been  their 
own  brother.  The  elder  was  married  to  Dennis 
Hanks ;  the  younger,  Matilda,  married  Lincoln's 
cousin,  Levi  Hall,  and,  after  his  death,  a  gentleman 
named  Moore. 

Lamon  says  that  Lincoln  in  his  youth  made  a 
mockery  of  the  popular  religion  ;  not  from  any  lack 
of  reverence  for  what  he  believed  to  be  good,  but  be- 
cause "  he  thought  that  a  person  had  better  be  with- 
out it."  That  he  was  accustomed  to  turn  so-called 
sacred  subjects  into  ridicule  is  attested  by  his  step- 
sister, Mrs.  Moore.     She  says  : 

"  "When  father  and  mother  would  go  to  church, 
Abe  would  take  down  the  Bible,  read  a  verse,  give 
out  a  hymn,  and  we  would  sing.  Abe  was  about 
fifteen  years  of  age.  He  preached  and  we  would  do 
the  crying  "  (Every-Day  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  71). 

JOHN  HALL. 

On  the  28th  of  April,  1888,  the  writer,  in  company 
with  Mr.  Charles  Biggs,  of  Westfield,  HI.,  visited  the 
oLl  Lincoln  homestead,  near  Farmington,  111.  We 
dined  with  Mr.  John  Hall,  a  son  of  Lincoln's  step- 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  197 

sister  Matilda,  in  the  old  log-house  built  by  Lincoln's 
father  sixty  years  ago,  and  in  which  his  father  and 
step-mother  died.  Mr.  Hall,  who  owns  the  home- 
stead and  preserves  with  zealous  care  this  venerable 
relic,  is  an  intelligent  farmer  over  sixty  years  of  age. 
He  greatly  reveres  the  memory  of  his  illustrious 
uncle  and  loves  to  dwell  on  his  many  noble  traits  of 
character.  He  stated  that  the  family  tradition  is 
that  while  Abe  was  a  most  honest  and  humane  boy 
he  was  not  religious.  He  referred  to  the  mock  ser- 
mons he  is  said  to  have  preached.  "  At  these  meet- 
ings," said  Mr.  Hall,  "  my  mother  would  lead  in  the 
singing  while  Uncle  Abe  would  lead  in  prayer. 
Among  his  numerous  supplications,  he  prayed  God 
to  put  stockings  on  the  chickens'  feet  in  winter." 

WILLIAM  McNEELY. 

"William  McNeely,  of  Petersburg,  111.,  who  became 
acquainted  with  Lincoln  in  1831,  when  he  arrived  at 
New  Salem  on  a  flatboat,  says  : 

"  Lincoln  said  he  did  not  believe  in  total  depravity, 
and  although  it  was  not  popular  to  believe  it,  it  was 
easier  to  do  right  than  wrong ;  that  the  first  thought 
was :  what  was  right  ?  and  the  second — what  was 
wrong  ?  Therefore  it  was  easier  to  do  right  than 
wrong,  and  easier  to  take  care  of,  as  it  would  take 
care  of  itself.     It  took  an  effort  to  do  wrong,  and  a 


198  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN! 

still  greater  effort  to  take  care  of  it ;  but  do  right 
and  it  would  take  care  of  itself. 

"  I  was  acquainted  with  him  a  long  time,  and  I 
never  knew  him  to  do  a  wrong  act"  (Lincoln  Me- 
morial Album,  pp.  393-395). 

WILLIAM  G.  GREEN. 

One  of  Lincoln's  early  companions  at  New  Salem 
was  William  G.  Green.  He  and  Lincoln  clerked  in 
the  same  store  and  slept  together  on  the  same  cot. 
The  testimony  of  Mr.  Green  has  not  been  preserved. 
We  have  simply  an  observation  of  his,  incidentally 
made,  the  substance  of  which  is  thus  presented  by 
Lamon: 

"  Lincoln's  incessant  reading  of  Shakspere  and 
Burns  had  much  to  do  in  giving  to  his  mind  the 
'skeptical'  tendency  so  fully  developed  by  the 
labors  of  his  pen  in  1834-5,  and  in  social  conversa- 
tions during  many  years  of  his  residence  at  Spring- 
field "  (Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  145). 

Mr.  Green's  conclusion,  especially  in  regard  to 
Burns,  is  quite  generally  shared  by  Lincoln's  friends. 
Burns's  satirical  poems  were  greatly  admired  by 
Lincoln.  ''Holy  Willie's  Prayer,"  one  of  the  most 
withering  satires  on  orthodox  Christianity  ever 
penned,  was  memorized  by  him.  Every  one  of  its 
sixteen  stanzas,  beginning  with  the  following,  was 


WAS  HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  199 

an  Infidel  shaft  which  he  delighted  to  hurl  at  the 
heads  of  his  Christian  opponents  : 

"  0  thou,  wha  in  the  heavens  dost  dwell, 
Wha,  as  it  pleases  best  thysel', 
Sends  ano  to  heaven  and  ten  to  hell, 

A'  for  thy  glory, 
And  no  for  ony  guid  or  ill 

They've  done  afore  thee  I" 

JOSHUH  F.    SPEED. 

Another  of  Lincoln's  earliest  and  best  friends  was 
Joshua  F.  Speed.  When  he  was  licensed  as  a  law- 
yer and  entered  upon  his  professional  career  at 
Springfield  without  a  client  and  without  a  dollar, 
Speed  assisted  him  to  get  a  start.  W.  H.  Herndon 
was  clerking  for  Speed  at  the  time,  and  for  more 
than  a  year  Lincoln,  Herndon  and  Speed  roomed 
together.  Referring  to  the  religious  views  held  by 
Lincoln  at  that  time,  Mr.  Speed,  in  a  lecture,  says  : 

"  I  have  often  been  asked  what  were  Mr.  Lincoln's 
religious  opinions.  Wlien  I  knew  him,  in  early  life, 
he  was  a  skeptic.  He  had  tried  hard  to  be  a  be- 
liever, but  his  reason  could  not  grasp  and  solve  the 
great  problem  of  redemption  as  taught." 

This  is  the  testimony  of  an  orthodox  Christian, 
and  a  church-member.  Mr.  Speed,  during  the  years 
that  he  was  acquainted  with  Lincoln,  was  not  a 
member  of  any  church  ;  but  late  in  life  he  united 
with  the  Methodist  church.     As   "  the  wish  is  father 


200  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  : 

to  the  thought,"  Mr.  Speed  professed  to  believe  that 
Lincoln  before  his  death  modified,  to  some  extent, 
the  radical  views  of  his  early  manhood. 

GREEN    CARUTHERS. 

Soon  after  Lincoln  removed  to  Springfield,  he  be- 
came acquainted  with  Mr.  Green  Caruthers  and 
remained  on  intimate  terms  with  him  during  all  the 
subsequent  years  of  his  life.  Mr.  Caruthers  was  a 
quiet,  unobtrusive  old  gentleman,  universally  re- 
spected by  those  who  knew  him.  The  substance  of 
his  testimony  is  as  follows  : 

"  Lincoln,  Bledsoe,  the  metaphysician,  and  myself, 
boarded  at  the  Globe  hotel  in  this  city.  Bledsoe 
tended  toward  Christianity,  if  he  was  not  a  Christian. 
Lincoln  was  always  throwing  out  his  Infidelity  to 
Bledsoe,  ridiculing  Christianity,  and  especially  the 
divinity  of  Christ." 

JOHN  DECAMP. 

Another  of  Lincoln's  most  intimate  Springfield 
friends  was  John  Decamp.  Mr.  Decamp  was  inter- 
viewed by  Mr.  Herndon  regarding  Lincoln's  religious 
views  in  July,  1887.  His  statement  was  brief,  but 
to  the  point.     He  says  : 

"Lincoln  was  an  Infidel." 

MR.  LYNAN. 

In  1880,  at  Bismarck  Grove,  Kan.,  the  writer  of 
this  delivered  a  lecture  entitled,  "Four  American 


WAS   HE  A  CHKISTIAN?  201 

Infidels,"  a  portion  of  which  was  devoted  to  a  pre- 
Fentation  of  Lincoln's  religious  views.  In  its  report 
of  the  lecture,  the  Lawrence  Standard,  edited  by 
Hon.  E.  G.  Ross,  formerly  United  States  Senator 
from  Kansas,  and  more  recently  Governor  of  New 
Mexico,  said  : 

"  In  regard  to  Abraham  Lincoln  being  an  Infidel, 
the  evidence  adduced  was  overwhelming,  and  was 
confirmed  by  a  gentleman  present,  Mr.  Lynan,  who 
had  known  him  intimately  for  thirty  years.  Mr. 
Lynan  declared  that  none  but  personal  acquaintance 
could  enable  one  to  realize  the  nobility  and  purity  of 
Lincoln's  character,  but  that  he  was  beyond  doubt 
or  question  a  thorough  disbeliever  in  the  Christian 
scheme  of  salvation  to  the  end  of  his  life  "  (Lawrence 
Standard,  Sept.  4,  1880). 

JAMES  B.  SPAULDING. 

Mr.  J.  B.  Spaulding,  well  known  as  one  of  the 
leading  nurserymen  and  horticulturists  of  the  United 
States,  a  man  of  broad  culture  and  refinement,  who 
resides  near  Springfield,  became  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  Lincoln  as  early  as  1851,  and  for  a 
long  time  resided  on  the  same  street  with  him  in 
Springfield.     Mr.  Spaulding  says  : 

"  Lincoln  perpetrated  many  an  irreverent  joke  at 
the  expense  of  church  doctrines.  Regarding  the 
miraculous  conception,  he  was  especially  sarcastic. 


202  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  t 

He  wrote  a  manuscript  as  radical  as  Ingersoll  which 
his  political  friends  caused  to  be  destroyed." 

EZRA    STRINGHMM. 

A  short  time  since  I  was  conversing  with  a  party 
of  gentlemen  in  Eiverton,  111.  It  being  near  Lin- 
coln's old  Lome,  the  subject  of  his  religious  belief 
was  introduced.  An  old  gentleman,  who  up  to  this 
time  had  not  been  taking  part  in  the  conversation, 
quietly  observed  :  "  I  think  I  knew  Lincoln's  relig- 
ious views  about  as  well  as  any  other  man."'  "  What 
was  he  ?"  said  one  of  the  party.  "  An  Infidel  of  the 
first  water,"  was  the  prompt  response.  The  old 
gentleman  was  Ezra  Stringham,  one  of  Lincoln's 
early  acquaintances  in  Illinois. 

DR.  G.  H.  AMBROSE. 

Dr.  G.  H.  Ambrose,  of  Waldo,  Fla.,  who  was  asso- 
ciated in  the  law  business  at  Springfield  from  1846 
to  1849  with  a  relative  of  Mrs.  Lincoln,  says  : 

*'  Mr.  Lincoln  was  an  Infidel — an  outspoken  one." 

J.  H.  CHENERY. 

Mr.  J.  H.  Chenery,  one  of  Springfield's  pioneers — 
for  many  years  owner  and  proprietor  of  the  leading 
hotel  of  Springfield — says  : 

"  Keed  tried  to  prove  that  Lincoln  was  a  church 
man ;  but  everybody  here  knows  that  he  was  not. 
Once   in   a  srreat  while,  and  only  once   in  a  great 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  203 

while,  I  saw  him  accompany  his  wife  and  children 
to  church.  His  attacks  upon  the  church  were  most 
bitter  and  sarcastic.  He  wrote  a  book  against 
Christianity,  but  his  friends  got  away  with  it." 

SQUIRE  PERKINS. 

A  few  years  ago  there  died  near  Atchison,  Kan., 
an  old  gentleman  named  Perkins.  He  was  poor,  but 
honest,  and  a  bright  man  intellectually.  He  was  a 
son  of  Major  Perkins  who  was  killed  in  the  Black 
Hawk  war.  Lincoln  after  the  fight  discovered  the 
scalp  of  Major  Perkins,  which  his  savage  assassin  had 
taken  but  lost.  His  first  impulse  was  to  keep  it  and 
take  it  home  to  the  family  of  the  dead  soldier.  Then 
realizing  that  it  would  only  tend  to  intensify  their 
grief,  he  opened  the  grave  and  deposited  it  with  the 
body.  This  incident  led  to  an  intimate  acquaint- 
ance between  Lincoln  and  the  younger  Perkins.  In 
June,  1880,  Mr.  Perkins  made  the  following  state- 
ment relative  to  Lincoln's  religious  belief : 

"  During  all  the  time  that  I  was  acquainted  with 
Abraham  Lincoln  I  know  that  he  was  what  the  church 
calls  an  Infidel.  I  do  not  believe  that  he  ever 
changed  his  opinions.  When  Colfax  was  in  Atchi- 
son I  had  a  talk  with  him  about  Lincoln.  Among 
other  things,  I  asked  him  if  Lincoln  had  ever  been 
converted  to  Christianity.  He  told  me  that  he  had 
not." 


204  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN! 

W.  PERKINS. 

Mr.  Perkins,  an  old  lawyer  and  journalist  of  Illi- 
nois, who  was  acquainted  with  Lincoln  for  upward 
of  twenty  years,  and  who  was  his  associate  counsel 
in  several  important  cases,  writing  from  Belleview, 
Fla.,  under  date  of  August  22,  1887,  says: 

"The  unfair  efforts  that  Christians  have  been 
putting  forth  to  drag  Lincoln  into  their  waning  faith 
betray  a  pitiable  imbecility.  Were  it  possible  for 
them  to  get  the  world  to  believe  that  Washington, 
Jefferson,  and  Lincoln,  all  prayed,  had  faith,  and 
were  washed  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  would  that 
prove  the  inspiration  of  their  Bible,  harmonize  its 
contradictions,  put  a  ray  of  reason  in  its  gross  ab- 
surdities, or  humanize  the  first  one  of  its  numerous 
bloody  barbarities? 

"  I  knew  Mr.  Lincoln  from  the  spring  of  1838  till 
his  death.  Like  Archibald  Williams,  our  contem- 
porary, an  able  Lord  Coke  lawyer,  he  no  more  be- 
lieved in  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible  than  Hume, 
Paine,  or  Ingersoll.  Less  inclined  openly  to  de- 
nounce its  absurdities  and  cruelties,  or  to  antagonize 
the  well-meaning  credulous  professors,  than  was 
Williams.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  no  faith  whatever  in  the 
first  miracle  of  the  Bible,  or  the  scheme  of  bloody 
redemption  it  teaches.  To  attribute  such  sentiments 
to  him,  is  to  tarnish  his  well-earned  reputation  for 
common  sense,  and  to  impair  the  estimation  of  his 


WA8  HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  205 

countrymen  and  the  world  of  his  high  sense  of  hu- 
manity, justice,  and  honor. 

"  Two  of  my  Presbyterian  friends  at  Indian  Point, 
near  Petersburg,  told  me  that  they  had  interviewed 
Mr.  Lincoln  to  prevent  his  impending  duel  with 
Shields — claiming  that  it  was  contrary  to  the  Bibl« 
and  Christianity.  He  admitted  that  the  dueling 
code  was  barbarous  and  regretted  much  to  find  him- 
self iu  its  toils,  but  said  he,  '  The  Bible  is  not  my 
book,  nor  Christianity  my  profession.' " 

In  some  reminiscences  of  Lincoln,  recently  pub- 
lished, referring  to  a  celebrated  murder  case  in 
which  they  were  counsel  for  the  defendant,  Mr. 
Perkins  says : 

"  I  reminded  him  that  from  the  first  I  had  seen, 
and  to  him  said,  the  case  is  hopeless,  and  that  he 
must  have  expected  to  work  a  miracle  to  save  the 
accused.  He  answered  that  I  did  him  injustice, 
since  he  had  no  faith  in  miracles." 

Alluding  to  Lincoln's  alleged  change  of  heart,  he 
writes : 

"  He  never  changed  a  sentiment  on  the  subject  up 
to  his  final  sleep." 

JAM£S  GORLEY. 

Mr.  Gorley,  who  was  the  confidential  friend  of 
Lincoln,  and  who  spent  much  time  with  him,  both  at 
home  and  abroad,  made  the  following  statement : 


206  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  : 

*'  Lincoln  belonged  to  no  religious  sect.  He  was 
religious  in  his  own  way — not  as  others  generally. 
I  do  not  think  he  ever  had  a  change  of  heart,  relig- 
iously speaking.  Had  he  ever  had  a  change  of 
heart  he  would  have  told  me.  He  could  not  have 
neglected  it." 

W/LLfAM  JAYNE,  M.D. 

Dr.  Jayne,  who  was  appointed  Governor  of  Dakota 
by  Lincoln,  is  one  of  the  most  prominent  citizens  of 
Springfield,  and  was  one  of  Lincoln's  ablest  and 
most  faithful  political  friends.  He  secured  Lincoln's 
nomination  for  the  Legislature  once,  and  was  one  of 
the  first  to  pit  him  against  Douglas.  In  a  letter  to 
me,  dated  August  18,  1887,  Dr.  Jayne  says : 

"  His  general  reputation  among  his  neighbors  and 
friends  of  twenty-five  years'  standing  was  that  of  a 
disbeliever  in  the  accepted  faith  of  orthodox  Chris- 
tians. His  mind  was  purely  logical  in  its  construc- 
tion and  action.  He  believed  nothing  except  what 
was  susceptible  of  demonstration.  .  .  .  His  most 
intimate  friends  here,  and  close  to  him  in  the  confi- 
dential relations  of  life,  assert,  in  regard  to  those 
who  claim  for  Lincoln  a  faith  in  the  orthodox  Chris- 
tian belief,  that  the  claim  is  a  fraud  and  utter  non- 
sense." 

HON.  JESSE  K.  DUBOIS. 

Jesse  K.  Dubois,  for  a  time  State  Auditor  of  Illi- 
nois, a  noble  and  gifted  man,  and  one  whom  Lincoln 


I 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  207 

dearly  loved,  once  related  an  anecdote  which  shows 
that  if  Lincoln  did  believe  in  a  Supreme  Being,  he 
had  little  reverence  for  the  God  of  Christianity.  In 
company  with  Dubois,  he  was  visiting  a  family  in  or 
near  Springlield.  It  was  summer,  and  while  Dubois 
was  in  the  house  with  the  family,  Lincoln  occupied  a 
seat  in  the  yard  with  his  feet  resting  against  a  tree, 
as  was  his  wont.  The  lady,  who  was  a  very  zealous 
Christian,  called  attention  to  his  appearance  and 
commented  rather  severely  upon  his  ugliness.  When 
they  returned  home  Dubois  referred  to  the  lady's 
remarks.  Lincoln  was  silent  for  a  moment,  and  then 
said  ;  "  Dubois,  I  know  that  I  am  ugly,  but  she 
worships  a  God  who  is  uglier  than  I  am." 

HQN.  JOSEPH  GILLESPIE. 

Judge  Gillespie,  of  Edwardsville,  111.,  one  of  Lin- 
coln's most  valued  friends,  writes  as  follows  : 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  seldom  said  anything  on  the  subject 
of  religion.  He  said  once  to  me  that  he  never  could 
reconcile  the  prescience  of  Deity  with  the  uncer- 
tainty of  events." 

'*  It  was  difficult,"  says  Judge  Gillespie,  "  for  him 
to  believe  without  demonstration." 

JUDGE  STEPHEN  T.  LOGAN. 

Lincoln  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1837,  when  he 
was  twenty-eight  years  of  age.  Judge  Logan  being 
on  the  bench  at  the  time.     Soon  after  his  admission 


208  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

be  formed  a  partnership  with  John  T.  Stuart  which 
existed  nearly  four  years,  or  until  Mr.  Stuart  entered 
Congress.  He  then  became  the  partner  of  Judge 
Logan,  and  continued  in  business  with  him  until 
1843,  when  he  united  his  practice  with  that  of  Mr. 
Herndon.  The  testimony  of  Mr.  Stuart  and  Mr. 
Herndon  has  already  been  given.  No  formal  state- 
ment of  Judge  Logan  concerning  this  question  has 
been  preserved.  All  that  I  have  been  able  to  find  is 
contained  in  a  letter  from  Mr.  Herndon  dated  Dec. 
22,  1888.  Mr.  Herndon  wrote  in  relation  to  Lincoln's 
letter  of  consolation  to  his  dying  father.  In  Lin- 
coln's letter,  while  Christ  and  Christianity  are  wholly 
ignored,  there  is  an  implied  recognition  of  immortal- 
ity and  an  expressed  hope  that  he  may  meet  his 
father  again.  Lincoln's  friends,  for  the  most  part, 
consider  the  letter  merely  conventional,  not  an  ex- 
pression of  his  real  sentiments,  but  simply  an  effort 
to  console  his  Christian  father  whom  he  could  never 
meet  again  on  earth.  Mr.  Herndon,  however,  is 
inclined  to  believe  that  while  the  tone  of  the  letter  is 
not  exactly  in  accordance  with  the  views  generally 
held  by  Lincoln,  it  is  yet  a  sincere  expression  of  the 
feelings  -he  entertained  at  the  time.  Eef erring  to 
this  letter,  Mr.  Herndon  says  : 

"  I  showed  the  letter  to  Logan,  Stuart,  et  al.  Logan 
laughed  in  my  face  as  much  as  to  say  :  '  Herndon,  are 
you  so  green  as  to  believe  that  letter  to  be  Lincoln's 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  209 

real  ideas  ? '  I  cannot  give  the  exact  words  of 
Logan,  but  he  in  substance  said  :  '  Lincoln  was  an  In- 
fidel of  the  most  radical  type.'  " 

HON.  LEONARD  SWETT. 

I  close  this  division  of  my  evidence  with  the  testi- 
mony of  that  gifted  lawyer  and  honored  citizen  of 
Illinois,  Leonard  Swett.  Previous  to  his  removal  to 
Chicago,  in  1865,  Mr.  Swett  resided  in  Bloomington, 
and  for  a  dozen  years  traveled  the  old  Eighth 
Judicial  Circuit  with  Lincoln.  Few  men  knew  Lin- 
coln better  than  did  Swett,  and  none  was  held  in 
higher  esteem  by  Lincoln  than  he.  It  was  he  who 
placed  Lincoln  in  nomination  for  the  Presidency  at 
Chicago  in  1860,  I  quote  from  a  letter  written  by 
Mr.  Swett  in  1866  : 

"  You  ask  me  whether  he  [Lincoln]  changed  his 
religious  opinions  toward  the  close  of  his  life.  I 
think  not.  As  he  became  involved  in  matters  of  the 
greatest  importance,  full  of  great  responsibility  and 
great  doubt,  a  feeling  of  religious  reverence,  a  belief 
in  God  and  his  justice  and  overruling  providence  in- 
creased with  him.  He  was  always  full  of  natural 
religion.  He  believed  in  God  as  much  as  the  most 
approved  church  member,  yet  he  judged  of  him  by 
the  same  system  of  generalization  as  he  judged  every- 
thing else.  He  had  very  little  faith  in  ceremonials 
or  forms.     In  fact  he  cared  nothing  for  the  form  of 


210  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  : 

anything.  ...  If  liis  religion  were  to  be  judged 
by  the  lines  and  rules  of  church  creeds,  he  would  fall 
far  short  of  the  standard." 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  211 


CHAPTEE  XI. 

TESTIMONY  OF  FRIENDS  AND  ACQUAINTANCES   OP  LINCOLN 
WHO   KNEW   HIM   IN   ILLINOIS. 

Hon.  W.  H.  T.  Wakefield— Hon.  D.  W.  Wilder— Dr.  B.  F.  Gardner— 
Hon.  J.  K.  Vandemark — A.  JefErey — Dr.  Arch  E.  McNeal — Charles 
McGrew — Edward  Butler — Joseph  Stafford — Judge  A.  D.  Norton — 
J.  L.  Morrell — Mahlon  Ross — L.  Wilson — H.  K.  Magie — Hon.  James 
Tuttle — Col.  F.  S.  Rutherford — Judge  Robert  Leachman — Hon.  Oriu  B. 
Gould — M.  S.  Go  win — Col.  R.  G.  Ingersoll — Leonard  W.  Volk — Joseph 
Jefferson — Hon.  E.  B.  Washburn — Hon.  E.  M.  Haines. 

I  WILL  next  present  the  evidence  that  I  have 
gleaned  from  the  lips  or  pens  of  personal  friends  of 
Lincoln  who  were  acquainted  with  him  in  Illinois. 
The  relations  of  these  persons  to  Lincoln  were,  for 
the  most  part,  less  intimate  than  were  those  of  the 
persons  named  in  the  preceding  chapter ;  but  all  of 
them  enjoyed  in  no  small  degree  his  confidence  and 
esteem. 

HON.   W.  H.   T.  WAKEFIELD. 

Mr.  Wakefield,  our  first  witness,  is  a  son  of  the 
distinguished  jurist,  Judge  J.  A.  Wakefield.  He  is 
a  prominent  journalist,  and  was  the  nominee  of  the 
United  Labor  party,  for  Vice-President,  in  the  Presi- 


212  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

dential  contest  of  1888.  In  a  letter  to  the  author, 
dated  Lawrence,  Kau.,  Sept.  28,  1880,  Mr.  Wake- 
field says : 

"  My  father,  the  late  Judge  J.  A.  Wakefield,  was 
a  life-long  friend  of  Lincoln's,  they  having  served 
through  the  Black  Hawk  war  together  and  been  in 
the  Illinois  Legislature  together,  during  which  latter 
time  Lincoln  boarded  with  my  father  in  Vandalia, 
which  was  then  the  state  capital.  I  remember  of 
his  visiting  my  father  at  Galena,  in  1844  or  1845. 
They  continued  to  correspond  until  Lincoln's  death. 

"  My  father  was  a  member  of  the  Metliodist  church 
and  frequently  spoke  of  and  lamented  Lincoln's  In- 
fidelity, and  referred  to  the  many  arguments  between 
them  on  the  subject. 

"  The  noted  minister,  Peter  Cartwright,  boarded 
with  my  father  at  the  same  time  that  Lincoln  did,  and 
my  father  and  mother  told  me  of  the  many  theolog- 
ical and  philosophical  arguments  indulged  in  by 
Lincoln  and  Cartwright,  and  of  the  fact  that  they 
alwa3's  attracted  many  interested  listeners  and 
usually  ended  by  Cartwright's  getting  very  angry 
and  the  spectators  being  convulsed  with  laughter  at 
Lincoln's  dry  wit  and  humorous  comparisons." 

Lincoln's  legislative  career  at  Vandalia  extended 
from  1834  to  1837.  It  was  about  the  beginning  of 
this  period  that  he  wrote  his  book  against  Christian- 
ity.    He  was  thoroughly  informed  and  enthusiastic 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  213 

in  his  Infidel  views,  and  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that  on  theological  questions,  he  was  able  to 
vanquish  in  debate  even  so  eminent  a  theologian  as 
Peter  Cartwright.  Ten  years  later,  Lincoln  was  the 
Whig,  and  Cartwright  the  Democratic  candidate  for 
Congress.  In  this  campaign  a  determined  effort  was 
made  by  the  church  to  defeat  Lincoln  on  account  of 
his  Infidelity.  But  his  popularity,  his  reputation  for 
honesty,  his  recognized  abilit}^  and  his  transcendent 
powers  on  the  stump,  carried  him  successfully 
through,  and  he  was  triumphantly  elected. 

HON.  D.   W.  WILDER. 

One  of  the  most  gifted  and  honorable  of  "Western 
journalists  is  D.  W.  Wilder,  of  Kansas.  He  was 
Surveyor  General  of  Kansas  before  it  was  admitted 
into  the  Union,  and  after  it  became  a  state,  he  held 
the  office  of  State  Auditor.  Many  years  ago  Gen. 
Wilder  wrote  and  published  an  editorial  on  Lincoln's 
religious  views  in  which  he  afiirmed  that  Lincoln 
was  a  disbeliever  in  Christianity.  The  article  ex- 
cited the  wrath  of  the  clergy,  among  them  the  Kev. 
D.  P.  Mitchell,  the  leading  Methodist  divine  of 
Kansas,  who  replied  with  much  warmth,  but  with- 
out refuting  the  statements  of  Gen.  Wilder.  Some 
of  my  Western  readers  will  recall  the  article  and  the 
controversy  it  provoked.  I  have  been  unable  to 
procure  a  copy  of  it,  but  in  its  place  I  present  the 


Sl4  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

following  extract  from  a  letter  received  from  Gen. 
Wilder,  dated  St.  Joseph,  Mo.,  Dec.  29,  1881 : 

"Lincoln  believed  in  God,  but  not  in  the  divinity 
of  Christ.  At  first,  like  Franklin,  he  was  probably 
an  Atheist.  Although  a  '  forgiving  '  man  himself,  he 
did  not  believe  that  any  amount  of  *  penitence  '  could 
affect  the  logical  effects  of  violated  law.  He  has  a 
remarkable  passage  on  that  theme." 

Concerning  Lincoln's  partner,  Mr.  Herndon,  with 
whom  he  was  acquainted.  Gen.  Wilder  says  : 

"  Write  to  Wm.  H.  Herndon,  a  noble  man,  Spring- 
field.  111.  Send  him  your  book  ['Life  of  Paine'] 
He  will  reply.     The  stories  told  about  him  are  lies.' 

B.  F.  GARDNER,  M.D. 

Dr.  Gardner,  an  old  and  respected  resident  of 
Atlanta,  111.,  in  March,  1887,  made  the  following 
statement  in  regard  to  Lincoln's  views  : 

"  I  knew  Lincoln  from  1854  up  to  the  time  he  left 
Springfield.  He  was  an  Infidel.  He  did  not  change 
his  belief.  Herndon  told  the  truth  in  his  lecture. 
Lincoln  did  not  believe  that  prayer  moved  God. 
When  he  requested  the  prayers  of  his  neighbors  on 
leaving  Springfield  for  Washington,  he  saw  that  a 
storm  was  coming  and  that  he  must  have  the  sup- 
port of  the  church." 

These  words  of  Lincoln  in  his  farewell  speech 
requesting  the  prayers  of  his  friends,  though  used 


WAS    HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  215 

merely  in  a  conventional  way,  have  been  cited  by 
Holland,  Arnold,  and  others,  to  prove  that  he  be- 
lieved in  the  efficacy  of  prayer.  That  no  such  im- 
port was  attached  to  them  at  the  time  is  admitted  by 
Holland  himself.  He  says  :  "  This  parting  address 
was  telegraphed  to  every  part  of  the  country,  and 
was  strangely  misinterpreted.  So  little  was  the 
man's  character  understood  that  his  simple  and 
earnest  request  that  his  neighbors  should  pray  for 
him  was  received  by  many  as  an  evidence  both  of 
his  weakness  and  his  hypocrisy.  No  President  had 
ever  before  asked  the  people,  in  a  public  address,  to 
pray  for  him.  It  sounded  like  the  cant  of  the  con- 
venticle to  ears  unaccustomed  to  the  language  of 
piety  from  the  lips  of  politicians.  The  request  was 
tossed  about  as  a  joke — '  old  Abe's  last '  "  (Holland's 
Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  254). 

HON.  J.  K.  VANDEMARK. 

J.  K.  Vandemark,  who  formerly  resided  near 
Springfield,  111.,  and  who  was  well  acquainted  v/ith 
Lincoln,  on  the  13th  of  October,  1887,  at  Valparaiso, 
Neb.,  testified  as  follows  : 

"I  met  Lincoln  often— had  many  conversations 
with  him  in  his  office.  To  assert  that  he  was  a  be- 
liever in  Christianity  is  absurd.  He  had  no  faith  in 
the  dv")gmas  of  the  church." 

Mr.  Vandemark    at   the    time   his   testimony  was 


216  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  : 

given  was   a  member  of  the  State  Senate  of  Ne- 
braska. 

4.    JEFFREY. 

Mr.  Jeffrey,  who  has  resided  near  Waynesville, 
111.,  for  a  period  of  fifty  years,  and  who  was  in  the 
habit  of  attending  court  with  Lincoln,  year  after 
year,  in  an  interview  on  the  1st  of  March,  1887,  made 
the  following  statement : 

"  Lincoln  was  decidedly  Liberal.  He  admitted  that 
he  wrote  a  book  against  Christianity.  In  later 
years  he  seldom  talked  on  this  subject,  but  he  did 
not  change  his  belief.  A  thrust  at  the  doctrine  of 
endless  punishment  always  pleased  him.  This  doc- 
trine he  abhorred." 

DR.   ARCH  E.   McNEALL. 

Dr.  McNeall,  an  old  physician  of  Bo  wen.  111., 
who  was  a  delegate  to  the  Decatur  Convention 
which  brought  Lincoln  forward  as  a  candidate  for 
the  Presidency,  says  : 

"  I  met  Lincoln  often  during  our  political  cam- 
paigns, and  was  quite  well  acquainted  with  him.  I 
know  that  he  was  a  Liberal  thinker." 

CHARLES    McGREW. 

Dr.  McGrew  is  a  resident  of  Coles  County,  111. — 
the  county  in  which  nearly  all  of  Lincoln's  relatives 
have  resided  for  sixty  years.     He  is  a  cousin  of  Hon. 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  217 

Ailen  G.  Thurman,  aud  is  a  man  of  sterling  charac- 
ter. He  was  for  a  time  related  to  Lincoln,  in  a 
business  way,  and  met  liim  frequently.  I  met  Dr. 
McGrew  in  1888,  and  when  I  propounded  the 
question,  ""Was  Lincoln  a  Christian?"  he  replied  : 

"  Lincoln  was  not  a  Christian.  He  was  cautious 
and  reserved  and  seldom  said  anything  about  relig- 
ion except  when  he  was  alone  with  a  few  companions 
whose  opinions  were  similar  to  his.  On  such  occa- 
sions he  did  not  hesitate  to  express  his  unbelief." 

EDWARD    BUTLER. 

Early  in  1858,  Lincoln  delivered  his  memorable 
Springfield  speech  which  prepared  the  way  for  his 
debates  with  Douglas,  and  made  him  President  of  the 
United  States.  Mr.  Edward  Butler,  who  resided  in 
Springfield  for  a  period  of  twenty-six  years,  and  who 
was  well  acquainted  with  Lincoln,  was  leader  of  the 
band  which  furnished  the  music  on  this  occasion. 
In  a  letter  written  at  Lyons,  Kan.,  Jan.  16, 1890,  Mr. 
Butler  relates  some  incidents  connected  with  the 
meeting,  and  quotes  a  passage  from  Lincoln's  speech 
to  the  efi'ect  that  from  the  agitation  of  the  slavery 
question,  truth  would  in  the  end  prevail.  Alluding 
to  this  passage,  Mr.  Butler  says : 

*'  Shortly  after  the  meeting  referred  to,  I  chanced 
to  be  talking  with  Lincoln  and  quizzingly  enquired 
how  he  could  reconcile  this  and  similar  utterances 


218  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN! 

with  Holy  Writ  ?  Without  committing  himself,  he 
enquired  if  I  had  read  Gregg's  '  Creed  of  Christen- 
dom.' I  informed  him  that  I  had  not.  '  Then/  said 
he,  *  read  that  book  and  perhaps  you  may  ascertain 
my  views  about  truth  prevailing.'  I  never  conversed 
with  Lincoln  afterwards,  but  I  obtained  the  book, 
which  I  keep  treasured  in  my  library.  I  am  well 
convinced  that  no  man  who  is  used  to  weighing 
evidence,  especially  of  Lincoln's  humane  and  un- 
biased disposition,  can  read  the  book  in  question 
without  truth  coming  to  the  surface." 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  that  Gregg's  "  Creed 
of  Christendom  "  is  a  standard  work  in  Infidel  litera- 
ture, one  of  the  most  scholarly,  powerful  and  con- 
vincing arguments  against  orthodox  Christianity 
ever  written. 

JOSEPH  STAFFORD. 

Joseph  Stafford,  a  resident  of  Galesburg,  111.,  and 
an  acquaintance  of  Lincoln,  says  : 

"  I  know  that  Lincoln  was  a  Liberal." 

JUDGE  A,  D.  NORTON. 

In  April,  1893,  at  Ardmore,  I.  T.,  I  met  Judge 
Norton,  of  Gainesville,  Tex.,  an  old  acquaintance  of 
Lincoln  and  Douglas.  Judge  Norton  related  many 
interesting  reminiscences  of  these  noted  men. 
Speaking  of  Lincoln's  religion,  he  said  : 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  219 

"  For  nearly  fifty  years  I  was  a  resident  of  Illinois. 
I  practiced  for  many  years  in  the  same  courts  with 
Lincoln  and  knew  him  well.  He  was  an  Infidel.  In 
his  early  manhood  he  wrote  a  book  against  Chris- 
tianity which  his  friends  prevented  him  from  pub- 
lishing. Because  he  had  become  famous,  the  church 
preached  him  from  a  theatre  to  heaven." 

J.    L.    WORRELL. 

Mr.  J.  L.  Morrell,  a  worthy  citizen  of  Virden,  111., 
who  came  to  Illinois  soon  after  Lincoln  did,  settled 
in  the  adjoining  county  to  him,  and  like  him  fol- 
lowed for  a  time  the  avocation  of  surveyor,  in  a 
conversation  with  the  writer,  on  the  8th  of  February, 
1889,  made  the  following  statement : 

"  I  knew  Lincoln  well — met  him  often.  His  relig- 
ion was  the  religion  of  common  sense.  He  went 
into  this  subject  as  deep  as  any  man.  He  did  not 
believe  the  inconsistencies  of  theology.  He  was  not 
a  Christian." 

MAHLON  ROSS,  ESQ. 

Squire  Ross,  another  old  resident  of  Virden,  111., 
a  lawyer,  and  a  writer  of  some  repute,  says  : 

"  I  was  acquainted  with  Lincoln,  but  never  talked 
with  him  on  religion.  He  did  not  belong  to  church, 
and  his  friends  say  that  he  was  not  a  Christian." 


220  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

LUSK   WILSON. 

Similar  to  the  above  is  the  testimony  of  Mr. 
Lusk  Wilson,  a  prominent  and  respectable  citizen  of 
Litchfield,  111.  : 

"  I  was  acquainted  with  Abraham  Lincoln,  but 
never  heard  him  give  his  views  on  the  subject  of 
religion.  His  partner,  Herndon,  and  other  friends, 
state  that  he  was  not  a  believer  in  Christianity." 

HON.  JAMES   TUTTLE. 

Two  miles  east  of  Atlanta,  111.,  resides  one  of  the 
pioneers  of  Illinois,  James  Tuttle,  now  over  eighty 
years  of  age.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  of  1847,  and  is  a  man  universally 
esteemed  for  his  love  of  truth  and  honesty.  Mr. 
Tuttle's  residence  is  situated  on  the  state  road 
leading  from  Springfield  to  Bloomington.  In  going 
from  Springfield  to  Bloomington,  to  attend  court, 
and  in  returning  home  again,  Lincoln  always  stopped 
over  night  with  Mr.  Tuttle.  Theological  questions 
were  favorite  topics  with  both  of  them,  and  the 
evening  hours  were  iisually  spent  in  conversations  of 
this  character.  Mr.  Tuttle  accordingly  became  well 
acquainted  with  Lincoln's  religious  views.  Feb.  26, 
1887,  at  Mmier,  111.,  he  made  the  following  statement 
relative  to  them  : 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  believe  in  Christianity.  He 
denounced  it  unsparingly.     He  had  the  greatest  con- 


WAS    HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  221 

tempt  for  religious  revivals,  and  called  those  who 
took  part  iu  them  a  set  of  ignoramuses.  He  was 
one  of  the  most  ardent  admirers  of  Thomas  Paine  I 
ever  met.  He  was  continually  quoting  from  the 
*Age  of  Eeason.'  Said  he,  '  I  never  tire  of  reading 
Paine.' " 

Mr.  Tuttle  is  confident  that  Lincoln  always  re- 
mained a  Freethinker,  and  believes  that  those  who 
claim  to  have  evidence  from  him  to  the  contrary, 
willfully  affirm  what  they  know  to  be  false. 

H.   K.   MAGIE. 

Mr.  Magie  formerly  lived  in  Illinois,  and  vras  for 
a  time  connected  with  the  State  Department  at 
Springfield.  Writing  from  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  March 
19,  1888,  he  says  : 

"  My  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Lincoln  was  limited, 
as  I  did  not  reside  in  Springfield  during  his  resi- 
dence there.  I  met  him  during  his  campaign  with 
Douglas  at  different  times,  and  was  with  him  once 
for  three  days.  .  .  .  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  Free- 
thinker of  the  Thomas  Paine  type.  There  have  been 
picked  up  some  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  utterances  about 
*  Providence,'  '  God,'  and  the  like,  on  whicli  an  at- 
tempt is  made  to  make  him  out  a  Christian.  Those 
who  knew  him  intimately  agree  in  the  statement  that 
he  was  a  pronounced  skeptic." 

Mr.  Magie   also  refers   to   the   Infidel   pamphlet 


222  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

written  bj  Lincoln.  His  knowledge  regarding  this, 
however,  was  derived,  not  from  Lincoln  himself,  but 
from  his  friends.     He  says : 

"  At  one  time  he  wrote  a  criticism  of  the  New 
Testament  which  he  proposed  to  publish  and  which 
his  friends  succeeded  in  having  suppressed,  solely 
because  of  their  regard  for  his  political  future." 

In  a  recent  contribution  to  a  New  York  paper  from 
Washington,  D.  C,  Mr.  Magie  writes  as  follows : 

"  I  have  always  been  fully  persuaded  in  my  own 
mind  that  it  would  have  been  utterly  impossible  for 
a  man  possessing  that  intuitive  wisdom,  keenness  of 
logic,  and  discernment  of  truth,  which  were  the 
marked  characteristics  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  mind,  ever 
to  have  subscribed  to  the  atrocious  doctrines  of  the 
Christian  church.  He  was  developed  far  above  it, 
and  although  making  no  war  upon  the  church,  he 
did  not  hesitate  to  speak  his  mind  freely  upon  these 
subjects  upon  all  proper  occasions.  I  lived  in 
Springfield  among  his  old  neighbors  for  many  years, 
and  I  have  talked  with  many  of  them,  and  to  those 
who  had  good  opportunity  to  know  his  views  touch- 
ing religious  matters.  All,  without  exception, 
classed  him  among  the  skeptics.  It  was  not  until 
after  his  death  that  he  was  claimed  as  a  Christian. 

"  I  am  sorry  for  Newton  Bateman.  He  has  placed 
himself  in  a  most  awkward  predicament  by  trying  to 
keep  out  of  one.     .     .     .     He  permitted  Mr.  Holland 


"WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  223 

to  circulate  an  atrocious  falsehood  in  bis  '  Life  of 
Lincoln'  rather  than  incur  'unpleasant  notoriety '  by 
a  firm  and  courageous  denial." 

"  It  is  not  a  matter  of  much  importance  as  to  just 
what  Abraham  Lincoln  did  believe  concerning  God, 
the  Bible,  or  the  man  Jesus,  but  when  -we  discover 
an  earnest,  persistent,  mean,  and  wicked  attempt  by 
lying  and  deceitful  men  to  pervert  the  truth  in  this 
matter,  in  order  that  their  *  holy  religion '  shall  profit 
by  their  lies,  the  matter  does  become  of  some  impor- 
tance, and  I  am  glad  that  Mr. has  taken  hold 

of  this  subject  with  that  zeal  and  earnestness  which 
usually  characterize  his  great  ability,  and  from  what 
I  know  in  this  matter  I  can  assure  all  whom  it  may 
concern  that  by  the  time  he  is  through  with  the  sub- 
ject it  will  be  deemed  settled  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
not  a  hypocrite,  neither  was  he  a  believer  in  the 
monstrous  and  superstitious  doctrines  of  the  Chris- 
tian church." 

The  foregoing  evidence,  with  the  exception  o.  a 
portion  of  Mr.  Magie's  testimony,  was  all  given  to 
the  writer  by  the  witnesses  themselves,  either  by 
letter  or  orally,  and  he  hereby  certifies  to  its  faith- 
ful transcription.  This  evidence  is  from  men  whose 
characters  as  witnesses  cannot  be  impeached,  and  it 
is  hardly  possible  that  one  of  them  will  ever  favor 
the  other  side  with  a  disclaimer. 


224  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

COL.  F.  S.   RUTHERFORD. 

I  wish  now  to  record  a  statement  from  Colonel 
Rutherford,  a  well-known  citizen  and  soldier  of 
Illinois.  It  was  not  made  to  the  writer,  but  was 
made  during  the  war  to  Mr.  W.  W.  Fraser,  a  member 
of  his  regiment,  and  a  man  of  unquestionable 
veracity.  I  will  let  Mr.  Fraser  present  it,  together 
with  the  circumstances  whicli  called  it  out.  I  quote 
from  a  letter  dated  Ottawa,  Kan.,  Dec.  16,  1881 : 

"  During  the  siege  of  Yicksburg  our  colonel,  F.  S. 
Rutherford,  Colonel  of  the  97th  III  Yol.  Inft.,  was 
about  to  leave  us,  and  I  went  to  see  him  about  tak- 
ing a  small  package  to  Alton — his  home  and  mine. 
He  had  been  sick  and  quite  unable  to  do  active  ser- 
vice. During  our  conversation  I  said  that  many  of 
the  Alton  boys  did  not  like  to  be  left  under  the  com- 
mand of .     Colonel  Rutherford  then  said  : 

'  If  my  life  is  worth  anything  I  owe  it  as  much  to  my 
family  as  my  country,  and  it  will  be  worthless  to 
either  if  I  stay  much  longer  in  camp,  but  I  hate  to 
leave  the  boys.'  Colonel  Rutherford  said  that  he 
had  stumped  his  district  for  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  had 
expected,  from  Mr.  Lincoln's  promises,  something 
better  than  a  colonelcy.  I  told  Colonel  Rutherford 
that  I  was  sorry  to  hear  that,  as  I  had  always  thought 
so  well  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  Mr.  Rutherford  then  said : 
'  "VThat  more  could  you  expect  of  an  Infidel  ?'  I  said  : 
'  Why,  Colonel,  doesn't  Lincoln  believe  in  a  God  ?' 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  225 

He  replied  :  *  Well,  be  may  believe  in  God,  but  lie 
doesn't  believe  in  the  Bible  nor  Christ.  I  know  it, 
for  I  have  heard  him  make  fun  of  them  and  say  that 
Christ  was  a  bastard  if  Joseph  was  not  his  father, 
and  I  have  some  sheets  of  paper  now  at  home  that 
he  wrote,  making  fun  of  the  Bible." 

JUDGE  ROBERT  LEACH  MAN. 

The  venerable  Southern  jurist,  Judge  Leachman, 
was  one  of  Lincoln's  intimate  and  valued  friend*. 
He  is  a  Christian,  but  candidly  confesses  that  Lin- 
coln was  not  a  believer.  In  the  autumn  of  1889,  at 
Annistou,  Ala.,  Judge  Leachman  made  the  following 
statement  to  Mr.  W.  S.  Andres,  of  Portsmouth,  O. : 

"  Lincoln  was  not  such  a  Christian  as  the  term  is 
used  to  imply  by  church  members  and  church-going 
people.  He  was  in  the  strictest  sense  a  moralist. 
He  looked  to  actions  and  not  to  belief.  He  greatly 
admired  the  Golden  Rule,  and  was  one  of  those  who 
thought  that  '  One  world  at  a  time  '  was  a  good 
idea.  .  .  .  He  thought  this  a  good  place  to  be 
happy  as  is  shown  by  his  wonderful  love  for  liberty 
and  mercy.  No,  I  can  truthfully  say,  Abraham  Lin- 
coln was  not  a  Christian." 

HON.   ORIN  B.  GOULD. 

Another  friend  and  admirer  of  Lincoln  was  Orin 
B.  Gould,  of  Franklin  Furnace,  O.     Mr.  Gould  was 


226  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

one  of  the  noted  men  of  Southern  Ohio.  He  was  a 
man  of  sterling  worth  and  extensive  knowledge,  and 
was  familiarly  known  as  the  "  Sage  of  the  Furnace." 
He  became  acquainted  with  Lincoln  in  Illinois  at  an 
early  day,  and  a  close  friendship  existed  between 
them  while  Lincoln  lived.  Mr.  Gould  survived  his 
illustrious  friend  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century,  dying 
recently  at  his  beautiful  home  on  the  banks  of  the 
Ohio.  Previous  to  his  death  the  question  of  Lin- 
coln's religion  was  presented  to  him  and  his  own 
views  on  the  subject  solicited.  His  response  was  as 
follows  : 

"  He,  like  myself,  recognized  no  monsters  for  Gods. 
He,  like  myself,  discarded  the  divinity  of  Christ,  and 
the  idea  of  a  hell's  fire.  Be,  like  myself,  admired 
Christ  as  a  man,  and  believed  the  devil  and  evil  to 
be  simply  'truth  misunderstood.'  He,  like  myself, 
thought  good  wherever  found  should  be  accepted 
and  the  bad  rejected." 

M.  S.  COWIN. 

Mr.  Gowin,  an  old  and  prominent  citizen,  and  g, 
Justice  of  the  Peace,  of  McCune,  Kan.,  in  a  recent 
article,  has  this  to  say  regarding  Lincoln: 

"  I  lived  near  Springfield,  111.,  from  the  time  that 
I  was  a  child,  and  at  the  time  Lincoln  came  before 
the  people,  and  during  the  time  he  was  President, 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  227 

his  enemies   called  him  au  Infidel,  and  his  friends 
did  not  deny  it." 

COL.  ROBERT  G.  INGERSQLL. 

On  the  eighty-fourth  anniversary  of  Lincoln's 
birth,  Col.  IngersoU  delivered  in  New  York  his 
masterly  oration  on  Abraham  Lincoln.  In  this 
oration  he  affirmed  that  the  religion  of  Lincoln 
was  the  religion  of  Voltaire  and  Paine.  Immediately 
after  its  delivery  Gen.  Collis,  of  New  York,  ad- 
dressed the  following  note  to  Col.  IngersoU : 

"Dear  CoL  IngersoU :  I  have  just  returned  home 
from  listening  to  your  most  entertaining  lecture  upon 
the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  I  thank  you  sincerely 
for  all  that  was  good  in  it,  and  that  entitles  me  to  be 
frank  in  condemning  what  I  consider  was  bad.  You 
say  that  Lincoln's  religion  was  the  religion  of  Vol- 
taire and  Tom  Paine.  I  know  not  where  you  get 
your  authority  for  this,  but  if  the  statement  be  true 
Lincoln  himself  was  untrue,  for  no  man  invoked  *  the 
gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God  '  in  every  effort  of 
his  life  with  more  apparent  fervor  than  did  he,  and 
this  God  was  not  the  Deists'  God  but  the  God  whom 
he  worshiped  under  the  forms  of  the  Christian 
Church,  of  which  he  was  a  member. 

"I  do  not  write  this  in  defense  of  his  religion  or  as 
objecting  to  yours,  but  I  think  it  were  better  for  the 


228  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN : 

truth  of  history  that  you  should  blame  him  for  what 
he  was  than  commend  him  for  what  he  was  not. 
"  Sincerely  yours, 

"  Charles  H.  T.  Collis." 

In  answer  to  the  above  Col.  IngersoU  penned  the 
following  reply : 
♦'  Gen.  Charles  H.  T.  Collis, 
"  My  dear  sir  : 

"  I  have  just  received  your  letter  in  which  you 
criticise  a  statement  made  by  me  to  the  effect  that 
Lincoln's  religion  was  the  religion  of  Voltaire  and 
Thomas  Paine,  and  you  add,  '  I  know  not  where  you 
get  your  authority  for  this,  but  if  the  statement  be 
true  Lincoln  himself  was  untrue,  for  no  man  ever  in- 
voked the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God  in  every 
effort  of  his  life  with  more  apparent  fervor  than  did 
he.' 

"  You  seem  to  be  laboring  under  the  impression 
that  Voltaire  was  not  a  believer  in  God,  "and  that  he 
could  not  have  invoked  the  gracious  favor  of 
Almighty  God.  Tlie  truth  is  that  Voltaire  was  not 
only  a  believer  in  God,  but  even  in  special  Provi- 
dence. I  know  that  the  clergy  have  always  de- 
nounced Voltaire  as  an  Atheist,  but  this  can  be 
accounted  for  in  two  ways  :  (1)  By  the  ignorance  of 
the  clergy,  and  (2)  by  their  contempt  of  truth. 
Thomas  Paine  was  also  a  believer  in  God,  and  wrote 
his  creed  as  follows  :     '  I  believe  in  one  God  and  no 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  229 

more,  and  hope  for  immortality.'  The  ministers 
have  also  denounced  Paine  as  an  Atheist. 

"  You  will,  therefore,  see  that  your  first  statement 
is  without  the  slightest  foundation  in  fact.  Lincoln 
could  be  perfectly  true  to  himself  if  he  agreed  with 
the  religious  sentiments  of  Yoltaire  and  Paine,  and 
yet  invoke  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God. 

"  You  also  say,  *  This  God '  (meaning  the  God 
whose  favor  Lincoln  invoked)  *  was  not  the  Deists' 
God.'  The  Deists  believe  in  an  Infinite  Being,  who 
created  and  preserves  the  universe.  The  Christians 
believe  no  more.  Deists  and  Christians  believe  in 
the  same  God,  but  they  difi'er  as  to  what  this  God 
has  done,  and  to  what  this  God  will  do.  You  fur- 
ther say  that  *  Lincoln  worshiped  his  God  under  the 
forms  of  the  Christian  Church,  of  which  he  was  a 
member.'  Again  you  are  mistaken.  Lincoln  was 
never  a  member  of  any  church.  Mrs.  Lincoln  stated 
a  few  years  ago  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  a  Chris- 
tian. Hundreds  of  his  acquaintances  have  said  the 
same  thing.  Not  only  so,  but  many  of  them  have 
testified  that  he  was  a  Freethinker  ;  that  he  denied 
the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  and  that  he  always 
insisted  that  Christ  was  not  the  son  of  God,  and  that 
the  dogma  of  the  atonement  was  and  is  an  absurd- 
ity. 

"  I  will  very  gladly  pay  you  one  thousand  dollars 
for   your   trouble    to   show    that  one   statement    in 


230  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

your  letter  is  correct — even  one.  And  now,  to  quote 
you,  '  Do  you  not  tliink  it  were  better  for  the  truth 
of  history  that  you  should  state  the  facts  about 
Lincoln,  and  that  you  should  commend  him  for  what 
he  was  rather  than  for  what  he  was  not  ?' 

"  Tours  truly, 

"E.  G.  Ingersoll." 

LEONARD  W.  VQLK. 

In  the  spring  of  1860,  just  before  Lincoln  was 
nominated  for  the  Presidency,  the  celebrated  sculp- 
tor. Yolk,  made  a  bust  of  him.  He  spent  a  week  in 
Chicago  and  made  daily  sittings  in  the  artist's 
studio.  Mr.  Yolk  relates  the  following  incident, 
which  hardly  accords  with  the  tales  told  about  Lin- 
coln's reverence  for  the  Sabbath,  and  his  love  for 
church  services : 

"  He  entered  my  studio  on  Sunday  morning,  re- 
marking that  a  friend  at  the  hotel  had  invited  him 
to  go  to  church.  *  But,'  said  Mr.  Lincoln, '  I  thought 
I'd  rather  come  and  sit  for  the  bust.  The  fact  is,' 
he  continued,   '  I  don't  like  to  hear    cut-and-dried 

JOSEPH    JEFFERSON. 

It  is  difficult  for  orthodox  Christians  to  reconcile 
Lincoln's  fondness  for  the  play  with  his  reputed 
piety.     That  his  last  act  was  a  visit  to  the  theater  is 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  231 

a  fact  that  stands  out  in  ghastly  prominence  to 
them.  To  break  its  force  they  oflfer  various  explana- 
tions. Some  say  that  he  went  to  avoid  the  office- 
seekers  ;  others  that  Mrs.  Lincoln  compelled  him  to 
go  ;  and  still  others  that  he  was  led  there  by  fate. 
The  truth  is  he  was  a  frequent  attendant  at  the 
theater.  He  went  there  much  oftener  than  he  went 
to  church.  The  visit  of  a  clergyman  annoyed  him, 
but  the  society  of  actors  he  enjoyed.  He  greatly 
admired  the  acting  of  Edwin  Booth.  He  sent  a  note 
to  the  actor  Hackett,  praising  him  for  his  fine  pres- 
entation of  Falstaff.  He  called  John  McCulloch  to 
his  box  one  night  and  congratulated  him  on  his  suc- 
cessful rendition  of  the  part  he  was  playing. 

In  his  autobiography,  which  recently  appeared  in 
the  Century  Magazine,  Joseph  Jefferson  gives  some 
interesting  reminiscences  of  Lincoln.  In  the  earlier 
part  of  his  dramatic  career  he  was  connected  with 
a  theatrical  company,  the  managers  of  which,  one  of 
whom  was  his  father,  built  a  theater  in  Springfield, 
lU.  A  conflict  between  the  preachers  and  players 
ensued.  The  church  was  powerful  then,  and  the 
city  joined  with  the  church  to  suppress  the  theater. 
The  history  of  the  struggle  and  its  termination,  as 
narrated  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  is  as  follows : 

"  In  the  midst  of  their  rising  fortunes  a  heavy 
blow  fell  upon  them.  A  religious  revival  was  in 
progress  at  the  time,  and  the  fathers  of  the  church 


232  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

not  only  launched  fortli  against  us  in  their  sermons, 
but  by  some  political  maneuver  got  the  city  to  pass 
a  new  law  enjoining  a  heavy  license  against  our 
'unholy'  calling;  I  forget  the  amount,  but  it  was 
large  enough  to  be  prohibitory.  Here  was  a  terrible 
condition  of  affairs — all  our  available  funds  invested, 
the  Legislature  in  session,  the  town  full  of  people, 
and  by  a  heavy  license  denied  the  privilege  of  open- 
ing the  new  theater ! 

"In  the  midst  of  their  trouble  a  young  lawyer 
called  on  the  managers.  He  had  heard  of  the  in- 
justice, and  offered,  if  they  would  place  the  matter 
in  his  hands,  to  have  the  license  taken  off,  declaring 
that  he  only  desired  to  see  fair  play,  and  he  would 
accept  no  fee  whether  he  failed  or  succeeded.  The 
case  was  brought  up  before  the  council.  The  young 
man  began  his  harangue.  He  handled  the  subject 
with  tact,  skill,  and  humor,  tracing  the  history  of 
the  drama  from  the  time  when  Thespis  acted  in  a 
cart  to  the  stage  ot  to-day.  He  illustrated  his 
speech  with  a  number  of  anecdotes,  and  kept  the 
council  in  a  roar  of  laughter ;  his  good  humor  pre- 
vailed, and  the  exorbitant  tax  was  taken  off. 

"  This  young  lawyer  was  very  popular  in  Spring- 
field, and  was  honored  and  beloved  by  all  who  knew 
him,  and,  after  the  time  of  which  I  write,  he  held 
rather  an  important  position  in  the  Government  of 
the  United  States.     He  now  lies  buried  near  Spring- 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  233 

field,  under  a  monument  commemorating  his  great- 
ness and  his  virtues — and  his  name  was  Abraham 
Lincoln." 

HON.  EUHU  B.  WASHBURN. 

The  ball-room,  too,  had  its  attractions  for  him. 
Some  years  ago  Hon.  E.  B.  TVashburn  contributed 
to  the  North  American  Bevieio  a  lengthy  article  on 
Lincoln.  When  President  Taylor  was  inaugurated, 
Lincoln  was  serving  his  term  in  Congress.  Alluding 
to  the  inaugural  ball,  Mr.  Washburn  says  : 

"  A  small  number  of  mutual  friends-  including 
Mr.  Lincoln — made  up  a  party  to  attend  the  inau- 
guration ball  together.  It  was  by  far  the  most 
brilliant  inauguration  ball  ever  given.  .  .  .  We 
did  not  take  our  departure  until  three  or  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning  "  (Reminiscences  of  Lincoln, 
p.  19). 

HON.  ELIJAH  M.  HAINES. 

In  February,  1859,  Governor  Bissell  gave  a  recep- 
tion in  Springfield  which  Lincoln  attended.  Hon. 
E.  M.  Haines,  then  a  member  of  the  Legislature,  and 
one  of  Lincoln's  supporters  for  the  Senate,  referring 
to  the  afi'air,  says  : 

*'  Dancing  was  going  on  in  the  adjacent  rooms,  and 
Mr.  Lincoln  invited  my  wife  to  join  him  in  the 
dancing,   which  she  did,   and   he   apparently   took 


234  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN! 

much  pleasure  in  the  recreation  "  (Every-Day  Life 
of  Lincoln,  p.  308). 

Early  in  January,  1863,  President  and  Mrs.  Lin- 
coln gave  a  reception  and  ball  at  the  White  House. 
This  was  a  severe  shock  to  the  Christians  of  the 
country,  and  provoked  a  storm  of  censure  from  the 
religious  press. 

According  to  Ninian  Edwards,  Lincoln  is  con- 
verted to  Christianity  about  1848.  In  March,  1849, 
he  attends  the  inauguration  ball  and  "Won't  go  home 
till  morning."  According  to  Dr.  Smith,  he  is  con- 
verted in  1858.  In  February,  1859,  he  attends  and 
participates  in  a  ball  at  Springfield.  According  to 
Noah  Brooks,  he  is  converted  in  1862.  In  January, 
1863,  he  gives  a  ball  himself.  In  every  instance  he 
retires  from  the  altar  only  to  enter  the  ball-room. 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  235 


CHAPTEE  XII. 

TESTIMONY   OP  FRIENDS  AND  ACQUAINTANCES   OP  LINCOLN 
WHO   KNEW   HIM  IN  WASHINGTON. 

Hon.  Geo.  W.  Julian— Hon.  John  B.  Alley— Hon.  Hugh  McCul- 
loch — Doun  Piatt — Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax — Hon.  Geo.  S.  Boutwell — 
Hon.  Wm.  D.  Kelly— E.  H.  Wood— Dr.  J.  J.  Thompson— Rev.  James 
Shrigley— Hon.  John  Covode— Jas.  E.  Murdock— Hon.  M.  B.  Field — 
Harriet  Beechcr  Slowe — Hon.  J.  P.  Usher — Hon.  S.  P.  Chase — 
Frederick  Douglas — Mr.  Defrees — Hon.  Wm.  H.  Seward— Judge  Aaron 
Goodrich— Nicolay  and  Hay's  "Life  of  Lincoln  "—Warren  Chase — 
Hon.  A.  J.  Grover — Judge  James  M.  Nelson. 

The  evidence  of  more  than  fifty  witnesses  has 
already  been  adduced  to  prove  that  Lincoln  was  not 
a  Christian  in  Illinois.  Those  who  at  first  were  so 
forward  to  claim  that  he  was,  have  generally  recog- 
nized the  futility  of  the  claim.  They  have  aban- 
doned it,  and  content  themselves  with  affirming  that 
he  became  a  Christian  after  he  went  to  Washington. 
These  claimants,  being  for  the  most  part  rigid  sec- 
tarians themselves,  endeavor  to  convince  the  world 
that  he  not  only  became  a  Christian,  but  an  orthodox 
Christian,  and  a  sectarian  ;  that  even  from  a  Calvin- 
istic  standpoint,  he  was  "sound  not  only  on  the 
truth  of  the  Christian  religion  but  on  all  its  funda- 
mental doctrines  and  teachings."     The  testimony  of 


236  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

Colonel  Lamon,  Judge  Davis,  Mrs.  Lincoln,  and 
Colonel  Nicolay,  not  only  refutes  this  claim,  but 
shows  that  he  was  not  in  any  just  sense  of  the  term 
a  Christian  when  he  died.  In  addition  to  this  evi- 
dence, I  will  now  present  the  testimony  of  a  score  of 
other  witnesses  who  knew  him  in  "Washington. 
These  witnesses  do  not  all  affirm  that  he  was  a  total 
disbeliever  in  Christianity  ;  but  a  part  of  them  do, 
while  the  testimony  of  the  remainder  is  to  the  effect 
that  he  was  not  orthodox  as  claimed. 

HON.  GEORGE  W.  JULIAN. 

Our  first  witness  is  George  W.  Julian,  of  Indiana. 
Mr.  Julian  was  for  many  years  a  leader  in  Congress, 
was  the  Anti-Slavery  candidate  for  Vice-President, 
in  1852,  and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  party  that 
elected  Lincoln  to  the  Presidency.  He  was  one  of 
Lincoln's  warmest  personal  friends  and  intimately 
acquainted  with  him  at  Washington.  Writing  to  me 
from  Santa  Fe,  N.  M.,  under  date  of  March  13, 1888, 
Mr.  Julian  says : 

"I  knew  him  [Lincoln]  well,  and  I  know  that  he 
was  not  a  Christian  in  any  old-fashioned  orthodox 
sense  of  the  word,  but  only  a  religious  Theist.  He 
was,  substantially,  such  a  Christian  as  Jefferson, 
Franklin,  Washington,  and  John  Adams ;  and  it  is 
perfectly  idle  to  assert  the  contrary." 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  237 

HON.  JOHN  B.  ALLEY. 

In  1886,  the  publishers  of  the  North  American 
Bevieiu  issued  one  of  the  most  unique,  original,  and 
interesting  works  on  Lincoln  that  has  yet  appeared 
— "Reminiscences  of  Abraham  Lincoln."  It  was 
edited  by  Allen  Thorndike  Rice,  and  comprises,  in 
addition  to  a  biographical  sketch  of  Lincoln's  life  by 
the  editor,  thirty-three  articles  on  Lincoln  written 
by  as  many  distinguished  men  of  his  day.  One  of 
the  best  articles  in  this  volume  is  from  the  pen  of 
one  of  Boston's  merchant  princes,  John  B.  Alley. 
Mr.  Alley  was  for  eight  years  a  member  of  Congress 
from  Massachusetts,  serving  in  this  capacity  during 
all  the  years  that  Lincoln  was  President.  To  his 
ability  and  integrity  as  a  statesman  this  remarkable 
yet  truthful  tribute  has  been  paid  :  "  No  bill  he 
ever  reported  and  no  measure  he  ever  advocated 
during  his  long  term  of  service  failed  to  receive  the 
approbation  of  the  House."  Lincoln  recognized  his 
many  sterling  qualities,  and  throughout  the  war  his 
relations  with  the  President  were  of  the  most 
intimate  character.  Mr.  Alley  is  one  of  the  many 
who  know  that  Lincoln  was  not  a  Christian,  and  one 
of  the  few  who  have  the  courage  to  affirm  it.  He 
says: 

"  In  his  religious  views  Mr.  Lincoln  was  very  nearly 
what  we  would  call  a  Freethinker.  While  he  re- 
flected a  great  deal  upon  religious  subjects  he  com- 


238  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

municated  his  thoughts  to  a  very  few.  He  had  little 
faith  in  the  popular  religion  of  the  times.  He  had  a 
broad  conception  of  the  goodness  and  power  of  an 
overruling  Providence,  and  said  to  me  one  day  that 
he  felt  sure  the  Author  of  our  being,  whether  called 
God  or  Nature,  it  mattered  little  which,  would  deal 
very  mercifully  with  poor  erring  humanity  in  the 
other,  and  he  hoped  better,  world.  He  was  as  free 
as  possible  from  all  sectarian  thought,  feeling,  or 
sentiment.  No  man  was  more  tolerant  of  the  opin- 
ions and  feelings  of  others  in  the  direction  of  relig- 
ious sentiment  or  had  less  faith  in  religious  dogmas  " 
(Reminiscences  of  Lincoln,  pp.  590,  591). 

In  conclusion,  Mr.  Alley  says  : 

"  While  Mr.  Lincoln  was  perfectly  honest  and  up- 
right and  led  a  blameless  life,  he  was  in  no  sense 
what  might  be  considered  a  religious  man  "  (Ibid). 

HON.  HUGH  Mcculloch. 

Hon.  Hugh  McCulloch,  a  member  of  Lincoln's 
Cabinet,  his  last  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  writes  : 

"  Grave  and  sedate  in  manner,  he  was  full  of  kind 
and  gentle  emotion.  He  was  fond  of  poetry. 
Shakspere  was  his  delight.  Few  men  could  read 
with  equal  expression  the  plays  of  the  great  dra- 
matist. The  theater  had  great  attractions  for  him, 
but  it  was  comedy,  not  tragedy,  he  went  to  hear. 
He  had  great  enjoyment  of  the  plays  that  made  him 


WAS  HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  239 

laugh,  no  matter  how  absurd  and  grotesque,  and  he 
gave  expression  to  his  enjoyment  by  hearty  and 
noisy  applause.  He  was  a  man  of  strong  religious 
convictions,  but  he  cared  nothing  for  the  dogmas  of 
the  churches  and  had  little  respect  for  their  creeds  '* 
(Reminiscences  of  Lincoln,  pp.  412,  413). 

DONN  PIATT. 

The  distinguished  lawyer,  soldier  and  journalist, 
Donn  Piatt,  who  knew  Lincoln  in  Illinois  and  who 
met  him  often  in  Washington,  writes : 

"  I  soon  discovered  that  this  strange  and  strangely 
gifted  man,  while  not  at  all  cynical,  was  a  skeptic. 
His  view  of  human  nature  was  low,  but  good- 
natured.  I  could  not  call  it  suspicious,  but  he  be- 
lieved only  what  he  saw  "  (Reminiscences  of  Lincoln, 
p.  480). 

Those  who  are  disposed  to  believe  that  Lincoln's 
Christian  biographers  have  observed  an  inflexible 
adherence  to  truth  in  their  statements  concerning 
his  religious  belief  would  do  well  to  ponder  the 
following  words  of  Mr.  Piatt : 

"  History  is,  after  all,  the  crystallization  of  popular 
beliefs.  As  a  pleasant  fiction  is  more  acceptable 
than  a  naked  fact,  and  as  the  historian  shapes  liis 
wares,  like  any  other  dealer,  to  suit  his  customers, 
one  can  readily  see  that  our  chronicles  are  only  a 
duller   sort   of  fiction  than   the  popular   novels  so 


240  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

eagerly  read ;  not  that  they  are  true,  but  that  they 
deal  in  what  we  long  to  have — the  truth.  Popular 
beliefs,  in  time,  come  to  be  superstitions,  and  create 
gods  and  devils.  Thus  Washington  is  deified  into 
an  impossible  man,  and  Aaron  Burr  has  passed  into 
a  like  impossible  monster.  Through  the  same  proc- 
ess Abraham  Lincoln,  one  of  our  truly  great,  has 
almost  gone  from  human  knowledge"  (Ibid,  p. 
478). 

HON.   SCHUYLER  COLFAX, 

Previous  to  the  war  no  class  of  persons  were 
louder  in  their  denunciation  of  Abolitionism  than 
the  clergy  of  the  Nortli.  When  at  last  it  became 
evident  that  the  institution  of  slavery  was  doomed, 
in  their  eagerness  to  be  found  on  the  popular  side, 
they  were  equally  loud  in  their  demands  for  its 
immediate  extirpation.  In  September,  1862,  a  depu- 
tation of  Chicago  clergymen  waited  upon  the  Presi- 
dent for  the  purpose  of  urging  him  to  proclaim  the 
freedom  of  the  slarve.  Notwithstanding  he  had 
matured  his  plans  and  was  ready  to  issue  his 
Proclamation,  he  gave  them  no  intimation  of  his  in- 
tention. In  connection  with  their  visit,  Colfax 
relates  the  following  : 

**  One  of  these  ministers  felt  it  his  duty  to  make  a 
more  searching  appeal  to  the  President's  conscience. 
Just  as  they  were   retiring,  he  turned,  and  said  to 


WAS   HE   A  CHRISTIAN?  241 

Mr.  Lincoln,  *  What  you  Lave  said  to  us,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, compels  me  to  say  to  you  in  reply,  that  it  is  a 
message  to  you  from  our  Divine  Master,  through  me, 
commanding  you,  sir,  to  open  the  doors  of  bondage 
that  the  slave  may  go  free  ! '  Mr.  Lincoln  replied, 
instantly,  '  That  may  be,  sir,  for  I  have  studied  this 
question,  by  nij^ht  and  by  day,  for  weeks  and  for 
months,  but  if  it  is,  as  3'ou  say,  a  message  from  your 
Divine  Master,  is  it  not  odd  that  the  only  channel 
he  could  send  it  by  was  that  roundabout  route  by 
that  awfully  wicked  city  of  Chicago  ? "  (Reminis- 
cences of  Lincoln,  pp.  334,  335). 

In  a  lecture  delivered  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  in  1886, 
Mr.  Colfax  stated  that  Lincoln  was  not  a  Christian, 
in  the  evangelical  sense.  To  a  gentleman  who 
visited  him  at  his  home  in  South  Bend,  Ind.,  he 
declared  that  Lincoln  was  not  a  believer  in  orthodox 
Christianity.  Again  at  Atchison,  Kan.,  he  informed 
Mr.  Perkins  that  Lincoln  had  never  been  converted 
to  Christianity,  as  claimed. 

HON.  WILLIAM  D.  KELLEY. 

William  D.  Kelley,  for  thirty  years  a  member  of 
Congress  from  Pennsylvania,  relates  an  incident 
similar  to  the  one  related  by  Mr.  Colfax.  A 
"  Quaker  preacher "  called  at  the  White  House  to 
urge  the  President  to  proclaim  at  once  the  freedom 


242  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN! 

of  the  slave.  To  illustrate  her  argument  and  empha- 
size her  plea,  she  cited  the  history  of  Deborah. 

"  Having  elaborated  this  Biblical  example,"  says 
Mr.  Kelley,  "  the  speaker  assumed  that  the  President 
was,  as  Deborah  had  been,  the  appointed  minister  of 
the  Lord,  and  proceeded  to  tell  him  that  it  was  his 
duty  to  follow  the  example  of  Deborah,  and  forth- 
with abolish  slavery,  and  establish  freedom  through- 
out the  land,  as  the  Lord  had  appointed  him  to  do. 

"  '  Has  the  Friend  finished  ?'  said  the  President,  as 
she  ceased  to  speak.  Having  received  an  affirmative 
answer,  he  said  :  *  I  have  neither  time  nor  disposi- 
tion to  enter  into  discussion  with  the  Friend,  and 
end  this  occasion  by  suggesting  for  her  consideration 
the  question  whether,  if  it  be  true  that  the  Lord  has 
appointed  me  to  do  the  work  she  has  indicated,  it  is 
not  probable  that  he  would  have  communicated 
knowledge  of  the  fact  to  me  as  well  as  to  her ' " 
(Reminiscences  of  Lincoln,  pp.  284,  285). 

HON.  GEORGE  S.  BOUTWELL. 

A  great  many  pious  stories  have  been  circulated 
in  regard  to  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  We 
are  told  that  he  made  a  "  solemn  vow  to  God  "  that 
if  Lee  was  defeated  at  Antietam  he  would  issue  the 
Preliminary  Proclamation.  And  yet  this  document 
contains  no  recognition  of  God.  He  even  com- 
pleted the  draft  of  it  on  what  Christians  are  pleased 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  243 

to  regard  as  God's  holy  day.  Mr.  Boutwell  states 
that  Lincoln  once  related  to  him  the  circumstances 
attending  the  promulgation  of  the  instrument.  He 
quotes  the  following  as  Lincoln's  words  : 

"  The  truth  is  just  tliis  :  When  Lee  came  over 
the  river,Imade  aresolution  that  if  McClellan  drove 
him  back  I  would  send  the  Proclamation  after  him. 
The  battle  of  Antietam  was  fought  Wednesday,  and 
until  Saturday  I  could  not  find  out  whether  we  had 
gained  a  victory  or  lost  a  battle.  It  was  then  too 
late  to  issue  the  Proclamation  that  day,  and  the  fact 
is  I  fixed  it  up  a  little  Sunday,  and  Monday  I  let  them 
have  it "  (Reminiscences  of  Lincoln,  p.  126). 

£.  f/.   WOOD. 

Mr.  E.  H.  Wood,  one  of  Lincoln's  old  Springfield 
neighbors,  who  visited  him  at  Washington  during 
the  war,  made  the  following  statement  to  Mr.  Hern- 
don,  in  October,  1881  : 

"I  came  from  Auburn,  N.  T. — knew  Seward 
well — knew  Lincoln  very  well — lived  for  three  years 
just  across  the  alley  from  his  residence.  I  had  many 
conversations  with  him  on  politics  and  religion  as 
late  as  1859  and  '60.  He  was  a  broad  religionist — a 
Liberal.  Lincoln  told  me  Franklin's  story.  Frank- 
lin and  a  particular  friend  made  an  agreement  that 
when  the  first  one  died  he  would  come  back  and  tell 
how  things  went.     Well,  Franklin's  friend  died,  but 


244:  ABBAHAM    LINCOLN: 

never  came  back.  'It  is  a  doubtful  question,'  said 
Lincoln,  '  wlietlier  we  f;et  anywhere  to  get  back.* 
Lincoln  said,  'There  is  no  hell.'  He  did  not  say 
much  about  heaven.  I  met  him  in  Washington  and 
saw  no  change  in  him." 

I  have  given  the  testimony  of  two  of  Lincoln's 
nearest  neighbors  in  Springfield,  Isaac  Hawley  and 
E.  H.  Wood.  Mr.  Hawley  believes  that  Lincoln  was 
a  Christian  ;  Mr.  Wood  hnoios  that  he  was  not.  Mr. 
Hawley  never  heard  Lincoln  utter  a  word  to 
support  his  belief;  Mr.  Wood  obtained  his  knowledge 
from  Lincoln  himself.  Mr.  Hawley's  belief  is  of 
little  value  compared  with  Mr.  Wood's  knowledge. 
Mr.  Hawley  never  heard  Lincoln  defend  Christianity 
and  probably  never  heard  him  oppose  it.  Lincoln 
knew  that  Mr.  Hawley  was  a  Christian — that  he  had 
no  sympathy  with  his  Freethought  views.  He  did 
not  desire  to  offend  or  antagonize  him,  and  hence 
he  refrained  from  introducing  a  subject  that  he  knew 
was  distasteful  to  him.  Mr.  Wood,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  a  man  of  broad  and  Liberal  ideas,  and 
Lincoln  did  not  hesitate  to  express  to  him  his  views 
with  freedom. 

J.  J.   THOMPSON.  M.D. 

Dr.  J.  J.  Thompson,  an  old  resident  of  Illinois, 
now  in  Colorado,  in  a  letter,  dated  March  18,  1888, 
writes  as  follows  : 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  246 

"I  knew  Abraham  Lincoln  from  my  boyhood  up 
to  the  time  of  his  death.  I  was  in  his  law  office 
many  times  and  met  him  several  times  in  Washing- 
ton. He  was  a  Liberal,  outspoken,  and  seemed  to 
feel  proud  of  it." 

"  This  great  and  good  man,"  concludes  Dr. 
Thompson,  "  claimed  Humanity  as  his  religion." 

REV.    JAMES   SHRIGLEY. 

Rev.  Jas.  Shrigley,  of  Philadelphia,  who  was  ac- 
quainted with  President  Lincoln  in  Washington,  and 
who  received  a  hospital  chaplaincy  from  him,  says  : 

"  President  Lincoln  was  also  remarkably  tolerant. 
He  was  the  friend  of  all,  and  never,  to  my  knowl- 
edge, gave  the  influence  of  his  great  name  to 
encourage  sectarianism  in  any  of  its  names  and 
forms  "  (Lincoln  Memorial  Album,  p.  335). 

HON.  JOHN  COVODE, 

In  connection  with  Mr.  Shrigley's  appointment, 
the  following  anecdote  is  related.  Mr.  Shrigley  was 
not  orthodox,  and  when  it  became  known  that  his 
name  had  been  sent  to  the  Senate,  a  Committee  of 
"Young  Christians"  waited  upon  the  President  for 
the  purpose  of  inducing  him  to  withdraw  the  nomi- 
nation. Hon.  John  Covode,  of  Pennsylvania,  was 
present  during  the  interview  and  gave  it  to  the 
press.    It  is  as  follows : 


246  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  I 

"  '  We  have  called,  Mr.  President,  to  confer  with 
you  in  regard  to  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Shrigley, 
of  Philadelphia,  as  hospital  chaplain.' 

"  The  President  responded  :  '  Oh,  yes,  gentlemen  ; 
I  have  sent  his  name  to  the  Senate,  and  he  will  nc 
doubt  be  confirmed  at  an  early  day.' 

"  One  of  the  young  men  replied  :  '  We  have  not 
come  to  ask  for  the  appointment,  but  to  solicit  you 
to  withdraw  the  nomination.' 

"  '  Ah,'  said  Lincoln,  *  that  alters  the  case  ;  but  on 
what  ground  do  you  ask  the  nomination  with- 
drawn ?' 

"  The  answer  was,  '  Mr.  Shrigley  is  not  sound  in 
his  theological  opinions.' 

"  The  President  inquired  :  '  On  what  question  is 
the  gentleman  unsound?' 

"  Response  :  '  He  does  not  believe  in  endless 
punishment ;  not  only  so,  sir,  but  he  believes  that 
even  the  rebels  themselves  will  finally  be  saved.' 

"  '  Is  that  so  ?'  inquired  the  President. 

*'  The  members  of  the  committee  both  responded, 
'Yes,'  'Yes.' 

"  *  Well,  gentlemen,  if  that  be  so,  and  there  is  any 
way  under  heaven  whereby  the  rebels  can  be  saved, 
then,  for  God's  sake  and  their  sakes,  let  the  man  be 
appointed ' "  (L.  M.  A.,  pp.  336,  337). 

And  he  was  appointed. 


WAS  HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  247 

JAMES  E.  MURDOCH. 

It  is  claimed  that  few  public  men  have  made 
greater  use  of  the  Bible  than  Lincoln.  This  is  true. 
He  was  continually  quoting  Scripture  or  alluding  to 
Scriptural  scenes  and  stories,  sometimes  to  illustrate 
or  adorn  a  serious  speech,  but  more  frequently  to 
point  or  emphasize  a  joke.  The  venerable  actor  and 
elocutionist,  James  E.  Murdoch,  who  had  met  Lin- 
coln, both  in  Springheld  and  Washington,  relates  an 
anecdote  of  him  while  at  Washington  which  serves 
to  illustrate  this  propensity  : 

"  One  day  a  detachment  of  troops  was  marching 
along  the  avenue  singing  the  soul-stirring  strain  of 
'  John  Brown.'  They  were  walled  in  on  either  side 
by  throngs  of  citizens  and  strangers,  whose  voices 
mingled  in  the  roll  of  the  mighty  war-song.  In  the 
midst  of  this  exciting  scene,  a  man  had  clambered 
into  a  small  tree,  on  the  sidewalk,  where  he  clung, 
unmindful  of  the  jeers  of  the  passing  crowd,  called 
forth  by  the  strange  antics  he  was  unconsciously  ex- 
hibiting in  his  efforts  to  overcome  the  swaying 
motion  of  the  slight  stem  which  bent  beneath  his 
weight.  Mr.  Lincoln's  attention  was  attracted  for  a 
moment,  and  he  paused  in  the  serious  conversation 
in  which  he  was  deeply  interested  and  in  an  ab- 
stracted manner,  yet  with  a  droll  cast  of  the  eye,  and 
a  nod  of  the  head  in  the  direction  of  the  man,  he  re- 


248  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN! 

peated,  in  liia  dry  and  peculiar  utterance,  the  fol- 
lowing old-fashioned  couplet : 

'  And  Zaccheous  he  did  climb  a  tree, 
His  Lord  and  Master  for  to  see.' " 

(L.  M.  A.,  pp.  349,  350). 

Mr.  Murdoch  states  that  in  connection  with  this 
incident  Lincoln  was  charged  "  with  turning  sacred 
subjects   into  ridicule."       He   apologizes   for,    and 
attempts  to  palliate  this  levity,  and  affects  to  believe 
that  Lincoln  was   a  Christian.      But   almost  daily 
Lincoln  indulged  in  jokes  at  the  expense  of  the  Bible 
and  Christianity,  many  of  them  ten-fold  more  sacri- 
legious in  their  character  than  this  trifling  incident  re- 
lated by  Mr.  Murdoch.    If  the   scrupulously  pious 
considered  this  simple  jest,  uttered  in  the  midst  of  a 
mixed   crowd,    irreverent,   what  would   have    been 
their  horror  could  they  have  listened  to  some  of  his 
remarks   made   when  alone  with   a  skeptical  boon 
companion?     With  Christians  and  with   strangers 
he    was   generally  guarded   in   his   speech,  lest  he 
should  give  offense  ;  but  with  his  unbelieving  friends, 
up  to  the  end  of   his   career,  his   keenest  shafts  of 
wit  were  not  infrequently  aimed  at  the   religion  of 
his  day.     This  shows  that   the  popular  faith  had  no 
more    sacredness    for   Lincoln,    the     President,    in 
Washington,  than  it   had  for   Lincoln,  the  farmer's 
boy,  who  mocked  and   mimicked   it  in   Indiana,  or 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  249 

Lincoln,  the  lawyer,  who  scoffed  at  it  and  argued 
agaiDst  it  in  lUiuois. 

HON.  MAUNSELL  B.  FIELD. 

Mr.  Field,  who  had  met  nearly  all  the  noted 
characters  of  his  day,  both  of  Europe  and  America, 
in  his  "Memories  of  Many  Men,"  has  this  signifi- 
cant sentence  respecting  Lincoln  : 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  was  entirely  deficient  in  what  the 
phrenologists  call  reverence  \yeneratioii\." 

This  made  it  easy  for  him  to  emancipate  himself 
from  the  slavery  of  priestcraft  and  become  and 
remain  a  Freethinker.  Professor  Beall,  one  of  the 
ablest  of  living  phrenological  writers,  says  : 

"  No  man  can  '  enjoy  religion,'  as  the  Methodists 
express  it,  unless  he  has  well  developed  veneration 
and  wonder  "  (The  Brain  and  the  Bible,  p.  109). 

"All  those  who  rebel  against  any  form  of  govern- 
ment which  in  childhood  they  were  taught  to 
revere,  must  of  necessity  do  so  in  opposition  to  the 
faculty  of  veneration.  Thus  it  is  obvious  that  the 
less  one  possesses  of  the  conservative  restraining 
faculties,  the  more  easily  he  becomes  a  rebel  or  an 
Infidel  to  that  which  his  reason  condemns.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  profoundly  conscientious  and  rever- 
ential man,  who  sincerely  regards  unbelief  as  a  sin, 
of  course  instinctively  antagonizes  every  skeptical 
thought,  and  is  thus  likely  to  remain  a  slave  to  the 


250  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

religion  learned  at  his  mother's  knee "  (Ibid,  p. 
228). 

Mr.  Field  also  relates  the  following  anecdote  of 
Lincoln : 

"  I  was  once  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  company  when  a 
sectarian  controversy  arose.  He  himself  looked 
very  grave,  and  made  no  observation  until  all  the 
others  had  finished  what  they  had  to  say.  Then 
with  a  twinkle  of  the  eye  he  remarked  that  he  pre- 
ferred the  Episcopalians  to  every  other  sect,  because 
they  are  equally  indifferent  to  a  man's  religion  and 
his  politics." 

HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE. 

The  noted  author  of  "  Uucle  Tom's  Cabin  "  had 
several  interviews  with  the  President.  She  wrote 
an  article  on  him  which  has  been  cited  in  proof  of 
his  "deeply  religious  nature."  But  if  her  words 
prove  anything,  they  prove  that  he  was  not  an 
evangelical  Christian.     They  are  as  follows  : 

"But  Almighty  God  has  granted  to  him  that  clear- 
ness of  vision  which  he  gives  to  the  true-hearted,  and 
enabled  him  to  set  his  honest  foot  in  that  promised 
land  of  freedom  which  is  to  be  the  patrimony  of  all 
men,  black  and  white  ;  and  from  henceforth  nations 
shall  rise  up  and  call  him  blessed.  We  believe  he  has 
never  made  any  religious  profession,  but  we  see  evi- 
dence that  in  passing  through  this  dreadful  national 


WAS   HE  A   CHKISTIAN?  251 

crisis,  he  has  been  forced  by  the  very  anguish  of  the 
struggle  to  look  upward,  where  any  rational  creature 
must  look  for  support.  No  man  in  this  agony  has 
suffered  more  and  deeper,  albeit  with  a  dry,  weary, 
patient  pain,  that  seemed  to  some  like  insensibility. 
' Whichever  way  it  ends,'  he  said  to  the  writer,  'I 
have  the  impression  that  /  shan't  last  long  after  it's 
over '  "  (Every-Day  Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  575,  576). 

Mrs.  Stowe  was  herself  an  orthodox  Christian 
communicant,  but  her  store  of  good  sense  was  too 
great  to  allow  her  to  inflict  her  religious  notions 
upon  the  unbelieving  President,  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence, she  did  not  see  him  rush  out  of  the  room 
with  a  Bible  under  his  arm  to— I  was  going  to  say 
— pray  God  to  deliver  him  from  an  intolerable 
nuisance. 

That  the  mighty  burden  which  pressed  upon  Lin- 
coln made  him  a  sadder  and  more  serious  man  at 
Washington  than  he  had  been  before  is  true.  Chris- 
tians are  always  mistaking  sadness  for  penitence  and 
seriousness  for  piety,  and  so  they  claim  that  he  ex- 
perienced a  change  of  heart. 

HON.  JOHN  P.   USHER. 

Christians  and  Theists  are  wont  to  speak  of  Lin- 
coln's constant  and  firm  reliance  upon  God.  But  it 
is  a  little  remarkable  that  in  the  preparation  of  his 
greatest  work  he  did  not  rely  upon  God.     In  the 


252  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

supreme  moments  of  his  life  he  forgot  God.     Dr. 
Barrows  says  : 

"  When  he  wrote  his  immortal  Proclamation,  he 
invoked  upon  it  ...  *  the  gracious  favor  of  Al- 
mighty God.' " 

When  he  wrote  his  immortal  Proclamation  he  had 
no  thought  of  God.  Judge  Usher,  a  member  of  his 
Cabinet,  tells  us  how  God  came  to  be  invoked : 

"  In  the  preparation  of  the  final  Proclamation  of 
Emancipation,  of  January  1,  1863,  Mr.  Lincoln  mani- 
fested great  solicitude.  He  had  his  original  draft 
printed  and  furnished  each  member  of  his  Cabinet 
with  a  copy,  with  the  request  that  each  should  ex- 
amine, criticise,  and  suggest  any  amendments  that 
occurred  to  them.  At  the  next  meeting  of  the  Cabi- 
net Mr.  Chase  said  :  '  This  paper  is  of  the  utmost 
importance — greater  than  any  state  paper  ever  made 
by  this  Government.  A  paper  of  so  much  impor- 
tance, and  involving  the  liberties  of  so  many  people, 
ought,  I  think,  to  make  some  reference  to  Deity.  I 
do  not  observe  anything  of  the  kind  in  it.'  Mr. 
Lincoln  said :  '  No  ;  I  overlooked  it.  Some  refer- 
ence to  Deity  must  be  inserted.  Mr.  Chase,  won't 
you  make  a  draft  of  what  you  think  ought  to  be  in- 
serted ?'  Mr.  Chase  promised  to  do  so,  and  at  the 
next  meeting  presented  the  following  :  '  And  upon 
this  Act,  sincerely  believed  ^o  be  an  act  of  justice 
warranted  by  the  Constitution  upon  military  neces- 


WAS  HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  253 

sity,  I  invoke  the  considerate  judgment  of  mankind 
and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God '  "  (Bemi- 
niscences  of  Lincoln,  pp.  91,  92). 

HON.  SALMON  P.  CHASE. 

In  the  New  York  Tribune  of  Feb.  22d,  1893, 
appeared  an  article  on  "  How  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation  was  made,"  written  by  Mrs.  Janet 
Chase  Hojt,  daughter  of  Salmon  P.  Chase.  In  this 
article  Mrs.  Hovt  gives  the  following  extract  from  a 
letter  written  to  her  by  her  father  in  1867 : 

"  Looking  over  old  papers,  I  found  many  of  my 
memoranda,  etc.,  of  the  war,  and  among  them  my 
draft  of  a  proclamation  of  emancipation  sub- 
mitted to  Mr.  Lincoln  the  day  before  his  own  was 
issued.  He  asked  all  of  us  for  suggestions  in 
regard  to  its  form  and  I  submitted  mine  in  writing, 
and  among  other  sentences  the  close  as  it  now 
stands,  which  he  adopted  from  my  draft  with  a  modi- 
fication. It  may  be  interesting  to  you  to  see  pre- 
cisely what  I  said,  and  I  copy  it.  You  must  remem- 
ber that  in  the  original  draft  there  was  no  reference 
whatever  to  Divine  or  human  sanction  of  the  act. 
What  I  said  was  this  at  tbe  conclusion  of  my  letter  : 
'  Finally,  I  respectfully  suggest  that  on  an  occasion 
of  such  interest  there  can  be  no  imputation  of  affec- 
tation against  a  solemn  recognition  of  responsibility 
before   men   and  before  God,  and  that  some  such 


254  ABEAHAM   LINCOLN: 

close  as  this  will  be  proper :  "  And  upon  this  act, 
sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of  justice  warranted 
by  the  Constitution  (and  of  duty  demanded  by  the 
circumstances  (of  the  country),  I  invoke  the  con- 
siderate judgment  of  mankind  and  the  gracious 
favor  of  Almighty  God.'"  Mr.  Lincoln  adopted  this 
close,  substituting  only  for  the  words  inclosed  in 
parentheses  these  words  :  '  upon  military  necessity,' 
which  I  think  was  not  an  improvement.'  " 

MR,  DEFREES. 

During  his  Presidency  the  clergy  petitioned  him 
to  recommend  in  his  message  to  Congress  an  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  recognizing  the  existence 
of  God.  In  preparing  his  message  it  seems  that  he 
inserted  the  request.  Keferring  to  this,  Mr.  Defrees, 
Superintendent  of  Public  Printing  during  Lincoln's 
administration,  says  : 

"  When  I  assisted  him  in  reading  the  proof  he 
struck  it  out,  remarking  that  he  had  not  made  up 
his  mind  as  to  its  propriety  "  ( Westminster  Review^ 
Sept.  1891). 

HON.  WILLIAM   H.   SEWARD. 

In  his"  Travels  Around  the  World,"  Seward  records 
one  of  Lincoln's  sarcastic  hits  at  the  doctrine  of  end- 
less punishment.  Speaking  of  England's  jealousy  of 
the  United  States  in  certain  matters,  Seward  says : 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  255 

"  That  hesitation  and  refusal  recall  President 
Lincoln's  story  of  the  intrusion  of  the  Universalists 
into  the  town  of  Springfield.  The  several  orthodox 
churches  agreed  that  their  pastors  should  preach 
down  the  heresy.  One  of  them  began  his  discourse 
with  these  emphatic  words  :  '  My  Brethren,  there  is 
a  dangerous  doctrine  creeping  in  among  us.  There 
are  those  who  are  teaching  that  all  men  will  be 
saved;  but  my  dear  brethren,  lue  hop©  for  better 
things '  "  (Travels  Around  the  World,  p.  513). 

JUDGE  AARON  GOODRICH. 

Judge  Goodrich,  of  Minnesota,  Lincoln's  minister 
to  Belgium,  who  was  one  of  the  most  accomplished 
scholars  in  the  West,  and  an  author  of  note,  and  who 
was  on  terms  of  close  intimacy  with  Lincoln,  both 
before  and  after  he  became  President,  says  : 

"He  [Lincoln]  believed  in  a  God,  t.e.,  Nature;  but 
he  did  not  believe  in  the  Christ,  nor  did  he  ever 
affiliate  with  any  church." 

FREDERICK  DOUGLAS. 

Abraham  Lincoln  believed  in  a  Supreme  Being, 
but  he  did  not  believe  in  the  God  of  Christians. 
The  God  of  Christians  was  to  him  the  most  hideous 
monster  that  the  imagination  of  man  had  ever  con- 
ceived. There  were  two  doctrines  taught  in  connec- 
tion with  this  deity  which  he  especially  abhorred — 
the  doctrine  of  endless  punishment,  and  the  doctrine 


256  ABKAHAM    LINCOLN  : 

of  vicarious  atonement.  That  the  innocent  should 
suffer  for  the  guilty — that  God  should  permit  his 
sinless  son  to  be  put  to  a  cruel  death  to  atone  for  the 
sins  of  wicked  men — was  to  him  an  act  of  the  most 
infamous  injustice.  His  whole  nature  rebelled 
against  the  idea.  Frederick  Douglas  narrates  an  in- 
cident which,  while  it  has  no  direct  reference  to  this 
theological  doctrine,  yet  tends  to  disclose  his  abhor- 
rence of  the  idea.  Mr.  Douglas  was  engaged  in  re- 
cruiting colored  troops  and  visited  the  President  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  from  him  a  pledge  that  col- 
ored soldiers  would  be  allowed  the  same  privileges 
accorded  white  soldiers.  As  the  Confederate  Gov- 
ernment had  declared  that  they  would  be  treated  as 
insurgents,  he  also  urged  upon  him  the  necessity  of 
retaliating,  if  colored  prisoners  were  put  to  death. 
But  to  the  latter  proposition  Lincoln  would  not 
listen.     Mr.  Douglas  says  : 

"  I  shall  never  forget  the  benignant  expression  of 
his  face,  the  tearful  look  of  his  eye  and  the  quiver 
of  his  voice,  when  he  deprecated  a  resort  to  retalia- 
tory measures.  He  said  he  could  not  take  men  out 
and  kill  them  in  cold  blood  for  what  was  done  by 
others.  If  he  could  get  hold  of  the  persons  who 
were  guilty  of  killing  the  colored  prisoners  in  cold 
blood,  the  case  would  be  different,  but  he  could  not 
kill  the  innocent  for  the  guilty  "  (Beminiscences  of  Lin- 
coln, pp.  188,  189). 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  257 

NICOLAY  AND  HAYS  "LIFE  OF  LINCOLN." 

Of  the  numerous  biographies  of  Lincoln  that  have 
been  published,  the  authors  of  three,  above  all 
others,  were  specially  qualified  and  possessed  the 
necessary  materials  for  a  reliable  biography  of  him 
— Herndon,  Lamon,  and  Nicolay  and  Hay. 

As  Colonel  Lamon's  "  Life  "  covers  but  a  part  of 
Lincoln's  career,  and  as  Mr.  Herndon's  "  Life  "  deals 
more  with  his  private  life  than  with  his  public  his- 
tory, the  biography  of  Lincoln  that  is  likely  to  be 
accepted  as  the  standard  authority,  is  the  w^ork  writ- 
ten by  his  private  secretaries,  Col.  John  G.  Nicolay 
and  Col.  John  Hay,  which  originally  appeared  in  the 
Century  Magazine.  In  the  chapter  on  "  Lincoln  and 
the  Churches,"  the  religious  phase  of  Lincoln's 
character  is  presented.  In  dealing  with  this  ques- 
tion the  authors  have  carefully  avoided  the  rock  upon 
which  Lamon's  "  Life "  was  wrecked,  and  at  the 
same  time  have  refrained  from  repeating  the  misrep- 
resentations of  Holland  and  Arnold.  They  do  not 
offend  the  church  b}'  openly  declaring  that  Lincoln 
was  an  Infidel ;  neither  do  they  outrage  truth  by 
asserting  that  he  was  a  Christian.  They  affirm  that 
during  the  latter  years  of  his  life  he  recognized  a 
"superior  power,"  but  they  do  not  intimate  that  he 
recognized  Jesus  Christ  as  this  power,  or  any  part 
of  it,  nor  that  he  accepted  the  Bible  as  a  special 
revelation  of  this  power.     In  the  following  passage 


258  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN! 

they  impliedly  deny  both  his  alleged  Atheism  and 
his  alleged  orthodoxy  : 

"  We  have  no  purpose  of  attempting  to  formulate 
hia  creed  ;  we  question  if  he  himself  ever  did  so. 
There  have  been  swift  witnesses  who,  judging  from 
expressions  uttered  in  his  callow  youth,  have  called^ 
him  an  Atheist,  and  others  who,  with  the  most  laud- 
able intentions,  have  remembered  improbable  con- 
versations which  they  bring  forward  to  prove  at 
once  his  orthodoxy  and  their  own  intimacy  with 
him." 

As  it  is  not  claimed  that  Lincoln  was  an  Atheist, 
especially  during  the  last  years  of  his  life,  the  above 
can  very  properly  be  brought  forward  in  support  of 
the  negative  of  this  question.  In  the  last  clause  it 
is  intended  by  the  authors  to  administer  a  sarcastio 
rebuke  to  such  witnesses  as  Brooks,  Willets  and 
Vinton,  as  well  as  deny  the  truthfulness  of  their 
statements. 

In  regard  to  Lincoln's  youth,  the  following  from 
Nicolay  and  Haj^'s  work  corroborates  Lamon's 
statements  and  refutes  those  of  Holland: 

"  We  are  making  no  claim  of  early  saintship  for 
him.  He  was  merely  a  good  boy,  with  sufficient 
wickedness  to  prove  his  humanity.  ...  It  is 
also  reported  that  he  sometimes  impeded  the  celerity 
of  harvest  operations  by  making  burlesque  speeches, 
or  worse  than  that,  comic  sermons,  from  the  top  of 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  269 

some  tempting  stump,  to  the  delight  of  the  hired 
hands  and  the  exasperation  of  the  farmer." 

HON.  WARREN   CHASE. 

In  1888,  I  received  a  brief  letter  from  Warren 
Chase  pertaining  to  Lincoln's  religious  belief.  Mr. 
Chase  was  acquainted  with  Lincoln  in  Washington. 
His  letter  has  been  mislaid,  but  I  recall  the  principal 
points  in  it,  which  are  as  follows  :  L  Lincoln  was 
not  a  believer  in  Christianity  ;  2.  He  was  much  in- 
terested in  the  phenomena  of  Spiritualism. 

HON.  A.  J.  GROVER. 

A.  J.  Grover,  a  life-long  reformer,  an  old-time 
Abolitionist,  an  able  advocate  of  human  liberty,  and 
a  personal  friend  and  admirer  of  Lincoln,  in  a  letter 
written  April  13,  1888,  sends  me  the  following  as  his 
testimony  : 

"Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  a  religious  man  in  the 
church  sense.  He  was  an  Agnostic.  He  did  not  be- 
lieve in  the  Bible  as  the  infallible  word  of  God.  He 
believed  that  Nature  is  God's  word,  given  to  all  men 
in  a  universal  language  which  is  equally  accessible 
to  all,  if  all  are  equally  intelligent.  That  this  great 
lesson,  God's  word  in  his  works,  is  infinite,  and  that 
men  have  only  learned  a  very  little  of  it,  and  have 
yet  the  most  to  learn.  That  the  religions  of  all  ages 
and  peoples   are  only   very   feeble    and    imperfect 


260  ABBAHAM  LINCOLN: 

attempts  to  solve  the  great  problems  involved  in 
nature  and  her  laws.  Mr.  Lincoln  heartily  disliked 
the  narrow  and  silly  pretensions  of  the  church  and 
priesthood  who  now  falsely  claim  him,  as  they  do 
Washington,  Franklin  and  others. 

"  I  knew  Mr.  Lincoln  from  the  Douglas  cam- 
paign in  Illinois  in  1858  until  his  death,  and  I  never 
heard  him  on  any  occasion  use  a  single  pious  ex- 
pression in  the  sense  of  the  church — not  a  word  that 
indicated  that  he  believed  in  the  church  theology. 
But  I  have  heard  him  use  many  expressions  that 
indicated  that  he  did  not  know  much,  or  pretend  to 
know  much,  and  had  no  settled  convictions  concern- 
ing the  great  questions  that  theology  deals  so 
flippantly  with,  and  pretends  to  know  all  about. 
And  I  know  to  my  own  knowledge  that  the  claim 
the  church  now  sets  up  that  he  was  a  Christian  is 
false — as  false  as  it  is  in  regard  to  Washington." 

Writing  to  me  again  under  date  of  Jan.  12,  1889, 
Mr.  Grover  says  : 

"  I  knew  Mr.  Lincoln  in  Illinois  and  in  Washington. 
I  was  in  the  War  office,  for  a  time,  in  a  department 
which  had  charge  of  the  President's  books,  so-called. 
I  met  him  in  passing  between  the  White  House  and 
the  buildings  then  occupied  by  the  War  Department, 
almost  every  day.  I  often  had  to  go  to  Mr.  Stan- 
ton's office,  and  have  often  seen  Mr.  Lincoln  there. 
I  frequently  had  to  go  to  the  White  House  to  see 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  261 

him.     It  was  known  to  all  of  his  acquaintances  that 
he  was  a  Liberal  or  Bationalist." 

JUDGE  JAMES   M.  NELSON. 

The  last,  and  in  some  respects  the  most  important, 
of  our  Washington  witnesses  is  Judge  James  M. 
Nelson.  Judge  Nelson  for  many  years  has  been  a 
resident  of  New  York,  but  he  formerly  lived  in  Ken- 
tucky and*  Illinois,  Lincoln's  native  and  adopted 
states.  He  is  a  son  of  Thomas  Pope  Nelson,  a  dis- 
tinguished member  of  Congress  from  Kentucky,  and 
the  first  United  States  Minister  to  Turkey.  His 
great  grandfather  was  Thomas  Nelson,  Jr.,  a  signer 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  from  "Virginia. 
He  was  long  and  intimately  acquainted  with  Lin- 
coln both  in  Illinois  and  Washington.  About  the 
close  of  1886,  or  early  in  1887,  Judge  Nelson  pub- 
lished his  "  Eeminiscences  of  Abraham  Lincoln" 
in  the  Louisville,  Ky.,  Times.  In  reference  to  Lin- 
coln's religious  opinions  he  says  : 

"  In  religion,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  about  of  the  same 
belief  as  Bob  IngersoU,  and  there  is  no  account  of 
his  ever  having  changed.  He  went  to  church  a  few 
times  with  his  family  while  he  was  President,  but  so 
far  as  I  have  been  able  to  find  out  he  remained  an 
unbeliever." 

"Mr.  Lincoln  in  his  younger  days  wrote  a  book," 
says  Judge   Nelson,  "in   which  he   endeavored    to 


262  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

prove  the  fallacy  of  the  plan  of  salvation  and  tho 
divinity  of  Christ." 

I  have  yet  another  passage  from  Judge  Nelson's 
**  Reminiscences  "  to  present,  a  passage  which,  more 
than  anything  else  in  this  volume,  perhaps,  is  calcu- 
lated to  provoke  the  wrath  of  Christian  claimants. 
To  lend  an  air  of  plausibility  to  their  claims  these 
claimants  are  continually  citing  expressions  of  a 
seemingly  semi-pious  character  occasionally  to  be 
met  with  in  his  speeches  and  state  papers.  These 
expressions,  in  a  measure  accounted  for  by  Mr. 
Herndon,  Colonel  Lamon,  and  others,  are  still 
further  explained  by  a  revelation  from  his  own  lips. 
Judge  Nelson  says  : 

"I  asked  him  once  about  his  fervent  Thanksgiving 
Message  and  twitted  him  with  being  an  unbeliever 
in  what  was  published.  '  Oh,'  said  he,  '  that  is 
some  of  Seward's  nonsense,  and  it  pleases  the 
fool*.'" 


I^AS  HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  263 


OHAPTER    XIII. 

OTHjtS  TESTIMONY  AND   OPINIONS. 

ttew  York  World— Boston  Globe — Chicago  Herald— Manford* 8 
Magazine — Herald  and  Review — Chambers's  Encyclopediii — 
Encyclopedia  Britannica — People's  Library  of  Information — The 
World's  Sages — Kvery-Day  Life  of  Lincoln — Hon.  Jesse  W.  Weik — 
Chas.  W.  French — Cyrus  O.  Poole — A  Citizen  of  Springfield — Henry 
"Walker — Wm.  Bissett — Frederick  Heath — Rev.  Edward  Eggleston — 
Rev.  Robert  Collyer — Allen  Thorndike  Rice — Robert  C.  Adams — 
Theodore  Stanton— Geo.  M.  McCrie — Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull— Rev. 
David  Swing,  D.D. — Rev.  J.  Lloyd  Jones — Rev.  John  "W.  Chadwick. 

The  matter  selected  for  this  chapter  is  of  a  miscel- 
laneous nature,  consisting  of  the  statements  of  those 
who,  for  the  most  part,  are  not  known  to  have  been 
personally  acquainted  with  Lincoln.  It  embraces 
the  opinions  of  journalists,  encyclopedists,  biogra- 
phers, and  others.  If  their  words  cannot  be  ac- 
cepted as  the  testimony  of  competent  witnesses,  they 
may  at  least  be  regarded  as  the  verdict  of  honest 
jurors. 

NEW   YORK   WORLD. 

In  the  New  York  World,  fifteen  years  ago,  ap- 
peared the  following  i 

"  While  it  may  fairly  be  said  that  Mr.  Lincoln  en- 
tertained many  Christian  sentiments,  it  cannot  be 


264  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN*. 

said  that  he  was  himself  a  Christian  in  faith  or 
practice.  He  was  no  disciple  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
He  did  not  believe  in  his  divinity  and  was  not  a 
member  of  his  church. 

"  He  was  a^  first  a  writing  Infidel  of  the  school  of 
Paine  and  Volney,  and  afterward  a  talking  Infidel  of 
the  school  of  Parker  and  Channing," 

Alluding  to  the  friendly  attitude  he  assumed 
toward  the  church  and  Christianity  during  the  war, 
this  article  concludes  : 

"If  the  churches  had  grown  cold — if  the  Chris- 
tians had  taken  a  stand  aloof — that  instant  the 
Union  would  have  perished.  Mr.  Lincoln  regulated 
his  religious  manifestations  accordingly.  He  de- 
clared frequently  that  he  would  do  anything  to  save 
the  Union,  and  among  the  many  things  he  did  was  the 
partial  concealment  of  his  individual  religious  opin- 
ions. Is  this  a  blot  upon  his  fame  ?  Or  shall  we 
all  agree  that  it  was  a  conscientious  and  patriotic 
sacrifice  ?" 

BOSTON  GLOBE. 

As  evidence  of  Lincoln's  piety,  we  are  referred  to 
a  picture  where  Lincoln,  with  his  son  Tad,  is  sup- 
posed to  be  reverentially  poring  over  the  pages  of 
the  Bible.  The  history  of  this  picture,  however,  has 
often  been  explained,  and  its  apparently  religious 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAK?  265 

character  shown  to  be  quite  secular.     The  Boston 
Globe,  in  a  recent  issue,  saj's  : 

"  The  pretty  little  story  about  the  picture  of 
President  Lincoln  and  his  son  Tad  reading  the  Bible 
is  now  corrected  for  the  one-hundredth  time.  The 
Bible  was  Photographer  Brady's  picture  album, 
which  the  President  was  examining  with  his  son 
while  some  ladies  stood  by.  The  artist  begged  the 
President  to  remain  quiet  and  the  picture  was  taken. 
The  truth  is  better  than  fiction,  even  if  its  recital 
conflicts  with  a  pleasing  theory." 

CHICAGO  HERALD. 

During  February,  1892,  the  Chicago  Herald  pub- 
lished an  editorial  on  Lincoln's  religion.  Being  one 
of  the  latest  contributions  to  this  subject,  and  ap- 
pearing in  one  of  the  principal  journals  of  Lincoln's 
own  state,  it  is  of  especial  importance.  It  is  a  can- 
did statement  of  what  nearly  every  journalist  of  Illi- 
nois knows  or  believes  to  be  the  facts.  From  it  I 
quote  as  follows  : 

"  He  was  without  faith  in  the  Bible  or  its  teach- 
ings. On  this  point  the  testimony  is  so  over- 
whelming that  there  is  no  basis  for  doubt.  In  his 
early  life  Lincoln  exhibited  a  powerful  tendency  to 
aggressive  Infidelity.  But  when  he  grew  to  be  a 
politician  he  became  secretive  and  non-committal  in 
his    religious  belief.     He   was  shrewd   eK'^>ngh    to 


266  ABB  AH  AM    LINCOLN: 

realize  the  necessity  of  reticence  with  the  convic- 
tions he  possessed  if  he  hoped  to  succeed  in 
politics. 

"It  is  matter  of  history  that  in  183-i,  at  New 
Salem,  111.,  Lincoln  read  and  circulated  Volney's 
'  Kuins '  and  Paine's  '  Age  of  Eeason,'  giving  to  both 
books  the  sincere  recommendation  of  his  unqualified 
approval.  About  that  time  or  a  little  later  he  wrote 
an  extensive  argument  against  Christianity,  intend- 
ing to  publish  it.  In  this  argument  he  contended  that 
the  Bible  was  not  inspired  and  that  Jesus  Christ  was 
not  the  son  of  God.  He  read  this  compilation  of  his 
views  to  numerous  friends,  and  on  one  occasion 
when  so  engaged  his  friend  and  employer,  Samuel 
Hill,  snatched  the  manuscript  from  the  author's 
hands  and  threw  it  into  the  stove,  where  it  was 
quickly  consumed.  A  Springfield  friend  said  of  him 
in  1838,  '  Lincoln  was  enthusiastic  in  his  Infidelity.' 
John  T.  Stuart,  who  was  his  first  law  partner,  de- 
clares :  *  Lincoln  was  an  avowed  and  open  Infidel. 
He  went  further  against  Christian  belief  than  any 
man  I  ever  heard.  He  always  denied  that  Jesus 
was  the  Christ  of  God.'  David  Davis  stated  that 
'  Lincoln  had  absolutely  no  faith  in  the  Christian 
sense  of  the  term.' 

"  These  authorities  ought  to  be  conclusive,  but 
there  is  further  testimony.  This  latter  is  important 
as  explanatory  of  Lincoln's  frequent  allusions  in  his 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  267 

Presidential  messages  and  proclamations  to  the  Su- 
preme Being.  To  the  simplicity  of  his  nature  there 
was  added  a  poetic  temperament.  He  was  fond  of 
effective  imagery,  and  his  references  to  the  Deity  are 
due  to  the  instinct  of  the  poet.  After  his  death  Mrs. 
Lincoln  said  :  '  Mr.  Lincoln  had  no  faith  and  no 
hope  in  the  usu  '1  acceptation  of  those  words.  He 
never  joined  a  church.'  She  denominates  what  has 
been  mistaken  for  his  expressions  of  religious  senti- 
ment as  '  a  kind  of  poetry  in  his  nature,'  adding  *  he 
was  never  a  Christian.'  Herndon,  who  was  his  latest 
law  partner  and  biographer,  is  even  more  explicit. 
He  says:  'No  man  had  a  stronger  or  firmer  faith 
in  Providence — God — than  Mr.  Lincoln,  but  the 
continued  use  by  him  late  in  life  of  the  word  God 
must  not  be  interpreted  to  mean  that  he  believed  in 
a  personal  God.  In  1854  he  asked  me  to  erase  the 
word  '  God '  from  a  speech  which  I  had  written  and 
read  to  him  for  criticism,  because  my  language  indi- 
cated a  personal  God,  whereas  he  insisted  no  such 
personality  ever  existed.' 

"  So  it  must  be  accepted  as  final  by  every  reason- 
able mind  that  in  religion  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  skeptic. 
But  above  all  things  he  was  not  a  hypocrite  or  pre- 
tender. He  was  a  plain  man,  rugged  and  earnest, 
and  he  pretended  to  be  nothing  more.  He  believed 
in  humanity,  and  he  was  incapable  of  Phariseeism. 
He  had  great  respect  for  the  feelings  and  oonvictioni 


268  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

of  others,  but  he  was  not  a  sniveler.  He  was  honest 
and  he  was  sincere,  and  taking  him  simply  for  what 
he  was,  we  are  not  likely  soon  to  see  his  like 
again." 

MANFORO'S  MAGAZINE. 

There  are  two  Christian  publications  that  have 
had  the  fairness  to  admit  the  truth  respecting  Lin- 
coln's belief.  Manford's  Magazine,  a  religious  peri- 
odical published  in  Chicago,  in  its  issue  for 
January,  1869,  contained  the  following : 

"  That  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  believer  in  the  Christian 
religion,  as  understood  by  the  so-called  orthodox 
sects  of  the  day,  I  am  compelled  most  emphatically 
to  deny ;  that  is,  if  I  put  faith  in  the  statements  of 
his  most  intimate  friends  in  this  city  [Springfield]. 
All  of  them  with  whom  I  have  conversed  on  this 
subject,  agree  in  indorsing  the  statements  of  Mr. 
Herndon.  Indeed,  many  of  them  unreservedly  call 
him  an  Infidel." 

"  The  evidence  on  this  subject  is  sufficient,  the 
writer  says,  to  place  the  name  of  Lincoln  by  the 
side  of  Franklin,  Washington,  Jeflferson,  and  [Ethan] 
Allen,  of  Revolutionary  notoriety,  as  Rationalists  ; 
besides  being  in  company  with  D'Alembert,  the 
great  mathematician,  Diderot,  the  geometrician,  poet, 
and  metaphysician ;  also  with  Voltaire,  Hume,  Gib- 
bon, and  Darwin." 


WAS    HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  269 

Referring  to  the  Infidel  book,  written  by  Lincoln, 
the  writer  says : 

"  This  work  was  subsequently  thrown  in  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's face  while  he  was  stumping  this  district  for 
Congress  against  the  celebrated  Methodist  preacher, 
Rev.  Peter  Cartwright.  But  Mr.  Lincoln  never 
publicly  or  privately  denied  its  authorship,  or  the 
sentiments  expressed  therein.  Nor  was  he  known 
to  change  his  religious  views  any,  to  the  latest 
period  of  his  life." 

The  article  concludes  with  these  truthful  words : 

"Mr.  Lincoln  was  too  good  a  man  to  be  a 
Pharisee  ;  too  great  a  man  to  be  a  sectarian ;  and 
too  charitable  a  man  to  be  a  bigot." 

HERALD   AND    REVIEW. 

This  work,  in  an  abridged  form,  originally  ap- 
peared in  the  Truth  Seeker  in  1889  and  1890.  After 
its  appearance,  the  Adventist  Herald  and  Review, 
one  of  the  fairest  and  most  ably  conducted  religious 
journals  in  this  country,  said  : 

"  The  Truth  Seeker  has  just  concluded  the  publi- 
cation of  a  series  of  fifteen  contributed  articles  de- 
signed to  prove  that  Abraham  Lincoln,  instead  of 
being  a  Christian,  as  has  been  most  strongly 
claimed  by  some,  was  a  Freethinker.  The  testimony 
seems  conclusive.  .  .  .  The  majority  of  the 
great  men  of  the  world  have  always  rejected  Christ, 


270  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  : 

and,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  they  always  will; 
and  the  efforts  of  Christians  to  make  it  appear  that 
certain  great  men  who  never  professed  Christianity 
were  in  reality  Christians,  is  simply  saying  that 
Christianity  cannot  stand  on  its  merits,  but  must 
have  the  support  of  great  names  to  entitle  it  to 
favorable  consideration." 

CHAMBERS'S  ENCYCLOPEDIA. 

Alden's  American  Edition  of  "Chambers's  Encyclo- 
pedia," one  of  the  most  popular  as  well  as  one  of 
the  most  reliable  of  encyclopedias,  says  : 

"  He  [Lincoln]  was  never  a  member  of  a  church  ; 
he  is  believed  to  have  had  philosophical  doubts  of 
the  divinity  of  Christ,  and  of  the  inspiration  of  the 
Scriptures,  as  these  are  commonly  stated  in  the 
system  of  doctrines  called  evangelical.  In  early  life 
he  read  Volney  and  Paine,  and  wrote  an  essaj'^  in 
which  he  agreed  with  their  conclusions.  Of  modern 
thinkers  he  was  thought  to  agree  nearest  with 
Theodore  Parker  "  (Art.  Lincoln,  Abraham). 

ENCYCLOPEDIA   BRITANNICA. 

By  whom  the  article  on  Lincoln  in  "  Chambers's 
Encyclopedia  "  was  written,  whether  by  one  of  Lin- 
coln's personal  friends,  or  by  a  stranger,  I  know 
not.  The  article  in  the  "  Britannica  "  was  written 
by  his  private  secretary,  Colonel  Nicolay.     In  this 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  271 

article  his  religion  is  briefly  summed  up  in  the 
following  words  : 

"  His  [Lincoln's]  nature  was  deeply  religious,  but 
he  belonged  to  no  denomination ;  he  had  faith  in 
the  eternal  justice  and  boundless  mercy  of  Provi- 
dence ;  and  made  the  Golden  Rule  of  Chriat  his 
practical  creed"  (Am.  Ed.,  voL  xiv,  p.  669). 

This  statement  at  first  glance  presents  a  Christian 
appearance,  and  the  reader  is  liable  to  infer  that  the 
writer  aims  to  state  that  Lincoln  was  a  Christian. 
But  he  does  not.  He  aims  to  state  in  the  least 
offensive  manner  possible  that  he  was  not — that  he 
was  simply  a  Deist.  A  person  may  have  a  "deeply 
religious  "  nature,  and  not  be  a  Christian.  He  may 
have  "  faith  in  the  eternal  justice  and  boundless 
mercy  of  Providence,"  and  yet  have  no  faith  what- 
ever in  Christianity.  He  may  make  "  the  Golden 
Rule  of  Christ  [or  Confucius]  his  practical  creed," 
and  at  the  same  time  wholly  reject  the  dogma  of 
Christ's  divinity.  The  above  statement  is  substan- 
tially true  as  applied  to  Lincoln,  and  it  would  be 
equally  true  if  applied  to  that  prince  of  Infidels, 
Thomas  Paine.  His  nature  was  deeply  religious ;  he 
had  faith  in  the  justice  and  mercy  of  Providence  ;  and 
bs,  too,  made  the  Golden  Pule  his  practical  creed. 

PEOPLE'S    LIBRARY    OF   INFORMATION. 

Mrs.  Lincoln  was  nominally  a  Presbyterian,  and 


272  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  : 

frequently,  tliougli  not  regularly,  attended  the  Eev. 
Dr.  Gurley's  churcli  in  Washington.  Lincoln  usually 
accompanied  her,  not  because  he  derived  any  pleas- 
ure or  benefit  from  the  services,  but  because  he  be- 
lieved it  to  be  a  duty  he  owed  to  his  wife  who,  in 
turn,  generally  accompanied  him  when  he  went  to 
his  church,  the  theater.  "  The  People's  Library  of 
Information  "  contains  the  following  relative  to  his 
church  attendance  : 

"  Lincoln  attended  service  once  a  day.  He  seemed 
always  to  be  in  agony  while  in  church.  .  .  .  His 
pastor.  Dr.  Gurley,  had  the  'gift  of  continuance,' 
and  the  President  writhed  and  squirmed  and  gave 
unmistakable  evidence  of  the  torture  he  endured." 

THE  WORLD'S  SAGES. 

In  "  The  World's  Sages,"  Mr.  Bennett  writes  as 
follows  concerning  Lincoln's  belief : 

"  Upon  the  subject  of  religious  belief  there  is  some 
diversity  of  claims.  All  his  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances readily  admit  that  in  early  manhood  and 
middle  age  he  was  an  unbeliever,  or  a  Deist.  In 
fact,  he  wrote  a  book  or  pamphlet  vindicating  this 
view.  His  most  intimate  friends  that  knew  him 
best,  claim  that  his  opinions  underwent  no  change 
in  this  respect ;  while  a  certain  number  of  Christians 
have,  since  his  death,  undertaken  to  make  out  that 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  273 

he  had  become  a  convert  to  Christianity  "  (World's 
Sages,  p.  773). 

"  "VThen  the  contradictory  character  of  the  evidence 
is  taken  into  consideration,  together  with  the  fact 
that  his  nearest  and  most  intimate  friends  would  be 
most  likely  the  ones  to  know  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
change,  had  any  such  taken  place,  the  incredibility 
of  the  asserted  change  is  easily  appreciated  "  (Ibid, 
p.  774). 

THE  EVERY-DAY  LIFE   OF  LINCOLN. 

In  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  appears  the 
following  paragraph,  which  contains  the  only  allusion 
to  Deity  to  be  found  in  this  immortal  document : 

"  And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an 
act  of  justice,  warranted  by  the  Constitution,  upon 
military  necessit}-,  I  invoke  the  considerate  judg- 
ment of  mankind  and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty 
God." 

The  appearance  of  the  above  paragraph  in  the 
Proclamation  is  thus  accounted  for  in  Francis  F. 
Brown's  "  Every-Day  Life  of  Lincoln,"  and  agrees 
with  Judge  Usher's  and  Chief  Justice  Chase's  ac- 
count of  it : 

"It  is  stated  that  Mr.  Lincoln  gave  the  most 
earnest  study  to  the  composition  of  the  Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation.  He  realized,  as  he  afterward 
said,  that  the  Proclamation  was  the  central  act  of 


214  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN ! 

his  administration,  and  the  great  event  of  the  Nine- 
teenth Century.  When  the  document  was  completed, 
a  printed  copy  of  it  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  each 
member  of  the  Cabinet,  and  criticisms  and  sugges- 
tions were  invited.  Mr.  Chase  remarked :  *  This 
paper  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  greater  than  any 
state  paper  ever  made  by  this  Government.  A 
paper  of  so  much  importance,  and  involving  the 
liberties  of  so  many  people,  ought,  I  think,  to  make 
some  reference  to  Deity.  I  do  not  observe  anything 
of  the  kind  in  it "  (Every-Day  Life  of  Lincoln,  pp. 
549,  550). 

The  amendment  suggested  was  allowed  by  the 
President,  and  Mr.  Chase  requested  to  supply  the 
words  he  desired  to  be  inserted.  The  paragraph 
quoted  was  accordingly  prepared  by  him  and  in- 
cluded in  the  Proclamation.  This  fact  is  also  ad- 
mitted by  Holland  in  his  "Life  of  Lincoln"  (p. 
401). 

HON.  J£SS£  W.  WEIK. 

Judge  Weik,  of  Greencastle,  Ind.,  who  was  asso- 
ciated with  Mr.  Herndon  in  the  preparation  of  his 
"  Life  of  Lincoln,"  in  a  lecture  on  "  Lincoln's  Boy- 
hood and  Early  Manhood,"  delivered  in  Plymouth 
Church,  Indianapolis,  Feb.  4,  1891.  said  : 

"  As  a  young  man  he  sat  back  of  the  country  store 
stove   and   said  the   Bible   was    not  inspired,   and 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  275 

Ciirist  was  not  the  Sou  of  God  "  (ludianapolis  Netvs, 
?'eb.  5,  '91). 

CHARLES    WALLACE  FRENCH. 

One  of  the  last  biographies  of  Lincoln  that  has 
appeared  is  "  Abraham  Lincoln  The  Liberator," 
written  by  Charles  W.  French.  After  citing  with 
approval  some  of  Mr.  Herndon's  statements  regard- 
ing Lincoln's  belief,  Mr.  French  says  : 

"  The  world  was  his  [Lincoln's]  church.  His 
sermons  were  preached  in  kindly  words  and  merciful 
deeds"  (p.  91). 

CfRUS  0.  POOLE. 

I  quote  next  from  a  monograph  on  "  The  Eelig- 
ious  Convictions  of  Abraham  Lincoln,"  written  by 
Cyrus  O.  Poole.  Referring  to  Arnold's  and  Hol- 
land's biographies  of  Lincoln,  Mr.  Poole  says  : 

"  Most  sectarians  now  think,  write,  and  act  as  if 
they  had  a  copyright  to  apply  '  Christian '  to  every- 
thing good  and  God-like  about  this  President ;  yet 
no  one  presumed  to  call  him  a  Christian  until  after 
his  death. 

"  It  may  be  a  soul-saving  process  like  the  ancient 
one  of  Pope  Gregory  in  the  sixth  century.  It  is  re- 
lated that  one  day  he  was  meditating  on  an  anecdote 
of  the  Pagan  Emperor  Tragan's  having  turned  back, 
when  at  the  head  of  his  legions  on  his  way  to  battle, 
to  render  justice  to  a  poor  widow  who  flung  herself 


276  ABRAHAM    LINOOLK  : 

at  liis  horse's  feet.  It  seemed  to  Gregory  that  the 
soul  of  a  prince  so  good  could  not  be  forever  lost, 
Pagan  though  he  was ;  and  he  prayed  for  him,  till  a 
voice  declared  Tragan  to  have  been  saved  through 
his  intercession.  And  thus,  through  the  prayer  of  a 
Christian  Pope,  a  pagan  of  the  first,  was  materialized 
into  a  Christian  in  the  sixth  century,  and  was,  of 
course,  transferred  from  hell  to  heaven.  Now  be- 
hold how  a  modern  politician  [Arnold]  can  play 
theologian  in  Christianizing  Abraham  Lincoln. 

"  There  is  now  hope  for  Benjamin  Franklin, 
John  Adams,  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  as  well  as 
the  chieftains.  Red  Jacket,  Tecumseh,  and  Black 
Hawk." 

Respecting  Lincoln's  message  to  his  dying  father, 
Mr.  Poole,  himself  a  firm  believer  in  the  doctrine  of 
immortality,  says  : 

"  This  prophetic  affirmation  of  a  continued  exist- 
ence, is  the  only  written  evidence  of  his  views  on 
this  momentous  question  that  can  be  found." 

In  addition  to  the  above,  I  cull  from  the  same 
work  the  following  brief  extracts  : 

"  He  lived  in  a  remarkably  formative  and  pro- 
gressive period,  and  was  in  all  matters  fully  abreast 
with  his  time.  As  a  truthful  thinker,  he  greatly  ex- 
celled any  of  the  statesmen  of  his  day." 

"  Lincoln,  like  Socrates,  was  a  man  so  natural,  so 
thoughtful,  rational,  and  sagacious,  that  he  clearly 


WAS  HE   A  CHRISTIAN?  277 

saw  that  the  popular  traditional  theology  of  his  day 
and  age  was  not  religion." 

A    CITIZEN    OF  SPRINGFIELD. 

A  gentleman  residing  in  Springfield,  111.,  who  was 
intimately  acquainted  with  Lincoln  from  the  time  he 
located  in  that  city  up  to  the  time  he  removed  to 
Washington,  a  period  of  nearly  twenty-five  years,  in 
a  letter  dated  Aug.  20,  1887,  writes  as  follows  : 

"  I  will  say  in  regard  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious 
views  that  he  was  not  orthodox  in  his  belief,  unless 
he  changed  after  he  left  Springfield.  He  was  hetero- 
dox— did  not  believe  in  the  divinity  of  Christ — in 
short,  was  a  Freethinker.  Now  I  do  not  want  to  be 
brought  into  public  notice  in  this  matter." 

In  deference  to  this  writer's  request  his  name  is 
omitted,  and  this  omission  destroys,  to  a  great  extent, 
the  value  of  his  testimony.  It  is  inserted  not  be- 
cause it  adds  any  particular  weight  to  the  evidence 
already  adduced,  but  as  a  specimen  of  a  very  large 
amount  of  evidence  of  the  same  character  that  must 
be  withheld  simply  because  the  persons  writing  or 
interviewed  shrink  from  publicity.  A  chapter,  yes,  a 
volume,  of  this  anonymous  testimony  might  be  given. 
At  least  a  hundred  personal  friends  of  Lincoln,  living 
in  and  about  Springfield,  privately  and  confidentially 
assert  that  he  was  an  Infidel,  but  will  not  permit 
their  names  to  be  used.    Twenty  years  ago  a  majority 


278  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

of  them  would  not  have  objected  to  their  statements 
being  published  ;  but  the  relentless  war  waged  by 
the  church  against  those  who  have  publicly  certified 
to  the  facts  has  sealed  their  lips. 

HENRY  WALKER. 

I  now  present  to  the  reader  another  citizen  of 
Springfield,  one  who  is  not  afraid  to  publicly  ex- 
press an  honest  opinion.  Mr.  Henry  Walker,  who 
has  resided  in  that  city  for  many  years,  writes  as 
follows  concerning  Lincoln's  religious  belief : 

"  After  inquiring  of  those  who  were  intimate  and 
familiar  with  him,  I  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  he 
was  a  Deist." 

"  There  is  a  rumor  current  here  that  he  once  wrote 
an  anti-Christian  pamphlet,  but  his  friends  per- 
suaded him  not  to  publish  it." 

Mr.  Walker  was  not  personally  acquainted  with 
Lincoln.  His  conclusion  is  simply  based  upon  the 
information  obtained  from  those  who  were  ac- 
quainted with  him.  His  statement,  like  the  preced- 
ing one,  is  introduced  not  so  much  because  of  any 
especial  value  attaching  to  it  as  mere  testimony,  but 
because  it  fairly  represents  the  common  sentiment 
of  those  who  have  investigated  this  subject,  and 
particularly  those  who  are  on  familiar  terms  with 
Lincoln's  old  associates  in  Illinois.  The  knowledge 
of  our  anonymous  witness  was  shared  by  Dr.  Smith, 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  279 

Mr.  Arnold,  and  Mr.  Edwards ;  the  opinion  ex- 
pressed by  Mr.  Walker  was  tbe  opinion  privately 
entertained  by  Dr.  Holland,  it  is  the  opinion  pri- 
vately entertained  by  Mr.  Bateman,  yes,  and  unques- 
tionably the  opinion  privately   entertained  by   Mr. 

Reed  himself. 

WILLIAM   BISSETT. 

An  article  on  Lincoln's  religion  written  by  Mr. 
Wm.  Bissett,  of  Santa  Ana,  Cal.,  and  recently  pub- 
lished in  The  Truth  Seeker,  contains  some  evidence 
that  deserves  to  be  recorded.  Mr.  Bissett  narrates 
the  following  : 

"  In  the  Spring  of  1859  we  moved  into  Livingston 
county,  Mo.,  near  Chillicothe.  We  at  once  became 
acquainted  with  a  man  by  the  name  of  William 
Jeeter.  Mr.  Jeeter  was  a  native  of  Kentucky,  and  if 
I  mistake  not,  was  born  and  raised  in  the  same  part 
of  the  country  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was,  but  about  that 
I  am  not  sure.  Mr.  Jeeter  told  me  that  Lincoln  and 
himself  settled  in  Illinois  when  they  were  young 
men,  and  boarded  together  for  a  number  of  years. 
He  says  he  knew  every  act  of  Lincoln's  life  up  to 
the  time  he  (Jeeter)  left  Illinois,  a  few  years  before 
Mr.  Lincoln's  nomination  for  the  Presidency.  I  was 
helping  Jeeter  build  a  house  for  himself  when  we 
received  the  news  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  nomination  ;  that 
is  why  we  came  to  speak  so  particularly  about  him. 


280  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN! 

Mr.  Jeeter  told  me  tliat  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  a  be- 
liever in  the  Christian  religion ;  that  is,  he  did  not 
believe  the  Bible  was  an  inspired  work,  nor  that 
Jesus  Christ  was  the  son  of  God.  '  Nevertheless,' 
said  Mr.  Jeeter,  '  he  was  one  of  the  most  honest  men 
I  ever  knew.  If  I  had  a  million  dollars  I  wouldn't 
be  afraid  to  trust  it  to  Lincoln  without  the  scratch 
of  a  pen,  I  know  the  man  so  well.'  Mr.  Jeeter  was  a 
strong  believer  in  the  Christian  religion  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  church,  and  a 
verj  fine  and  reliable  man." 

FREDERICK  HEATH. 

The  following  is  from  an  article  on  Lincoln  by  Mr. 
Frederick  Heath,  of  Milwaukee,  Wis.: 

"Two  years  ago  I  was  associated  with  Major  Geo. 
H.  Norris,  a  wealthy  orange-grower  of  Florida,  in 
that  state,  and  was  in  a  degree  his  confidant  In 
earlier  years,  while  a  lawyer  in  Illinois,  Major 
Norris  (he  was  at  one  time  mayor  of  Ottawa,  111.) 
was  quite  closely  associated  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  and 
he  gave  me  to  understand  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  an 
extreme  skeptic.  They  were  thrown  together  a  good 
deal  at  Springfield,  where  they  were  trying  cases  be- 
fore the  supreme  court.  Lincoln  would  frequently 
keep  them  from  sleep  by  his  stories  and  arguments, 
and  frequently  spoke  of  religious  matters  in  a  way 


WAS  HE  A  chkistianV  281 

that  showed  that  he  was  convinced  of  the  delusion 
of  faith.  I  wish  I  could  quote  the  Major's  words  as 
to  Lincoln's  remarks  on  religion,  but  will  not  venture 
to  frame  them,  as  this  is  a  subject  that  demands 
truth  and  exactness." 

REV.  EDWARD  EGGLESTON. 

When  Lincoln  went  to  New  York  in  the  winter  of 
1860,  to  deliver  his  Cooper  Institute  address,  he  had 
occasion  to  remain  over  Sunday  in  that  city.  At  the 
suggestion  of  a  friend,  he  visited  the  famous  Five 
Points,  and  attended  a  Sunday-school  where  the 
spawn  of  New  York's  worst  inhabitants  to  the  num- 
ber of  several  hundred  were  assembled.  Importuned 
for  a  speech,  he  made  a  few  remarks  to  the  children, 
and  the  fact  was  published  in  the  papers.  The  idea 
of  this  Infidel  politician  addressing  a  Sunday-school 
was  so  ludicrous  that  it  caused  much  merriment 
among  his  friends  at  Springfield.  When  he  returned 
home  one  of  them,  probably  Colonel  Matheny,  called 
on  him  to  learn  what  it  all  meant.  The  conversation 
that  followed,  including  Lincoln's  explanation  of  the 
affair,  is  thus  related  by  the  noted  preacher  and 
author,  Edward  Eggleston : 

"  He  started  for  '  Old  Abe's  '  office ;  but  bursting 
open  the  door  impulsively,  found  a  stranger  in  con- 
versation with  Mr,  Lincoln.     He  turned  to  retrace 


282  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN: 

liis  steps,  when  Lincoln  called  out,  *  Jim  !  What  do 
you  want  ?  '  'Nothing.'  'Yes,  you  do;  comeback.* 
After  some  entreaty  Jim  apjDroached  Mr.  Lincoln, 
and  remarked,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye,  'Well 
Abe,  I  see  you  have  been  making  a  speech  to  Sunday- 
school  children.  What's  the  matter  ?  '  '  Sit  down, 
Jim,  and  I'll  tell  you  all  about  it.'  AuJ  with  that 
Lincoln  put  his  feet  on  the  stove  and  began  :  '  When 
Sunday  morning  came,  I  didn't  know  exactly  what 
to  do.  Washburne  asked  me  where  I  was  going.  I 
told  him  I  had  nowhere  to  go  ;  and  he  proposed  to 
take  me  down  to  the  Five  Points  Sunday-school,  to 
show  me  something  worth  seeing.  I  was  very  much 
interested  by  what  I  saw.  Presently,  Mr.  Pease 
came  up  and  spoke  to  Mr.  Washburne,  who  intro- 
duced me.  Mr.  Pease  wanted  us  to  speak.  Wash- 
burne spoke,  and  then  I  was  urged  to  speak.  I  told 
them  I  did  not  know  anything  about  talking  to  Sun- 
day-schools, but  Mr.  Pease  said  many  of  the  children 
were  friendless  and  homeless,  and  that  a  few  words 
would  do  them  good.  Washburne  said  I  must  talk. 
And  so  I  rose  to  speak;  but  I  tell  you,  Jim,  I  didn't 
know  what  to  say.  I  remembered  that  Mr.  Pease 
said  that  they  were  homeless  and  friendless,  and  I 
thought  of  the  time  when  I  had  been  pinched  by 
terrible  poverty.     And  so  I   told  them  that  I  had 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  283 

been  poor ;  that  I  remembered  when  mj  toes  stuck 
out  through  my  broken  shoes  in  winter ;  when  my 
arms  were  out  at  the  elbows;  when  I  shivered  with 
the  cold.  And  I  told  them  there  was  only  one  rule. 
That  was,  always  do  the  very  best  you  can.  I  told 
them  that  I  had  always  tried  to  do  the  very  best  I 
could ;  and  that,  if  they  would  follow  that  rule,  they 
would  get  along  somehow.  That  was  about  what  I 
said '  "  (Every-Day  Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  322,  323). 

The  foregoing  is  significant.  Lincoln  was  not  an 
advocate  of  Sunday-schools.  He  had  probably  never 
visited  one  before.  As  generally  conducted,  he  re- 
garded them  simply  as  nurseries  of  superstition. 
He  could  not  indorse  the  religious  ideas  taught  in 
them,  and  he  was  not  there  that  day  to  antagonize 
them.  As  a  consequence,  this  ready  talker — this 
man  who  had  been  making  speeches  all  his  life — 
was,  for  the  first  time,  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  say. 
He  could  not  talk  to  them  about  the  Bible — he  could 
not  tell  them  that  "  it  is  the  best  gift  which  God 
has  given  to  man  " — that  "  all  the  good  from  the 
Savior  of  world  is  communicated  to  us  through 
this  book" — that  "but  for  this  book  we  could  not 
know  right  from  wrong" — he  could  not  tell  them 
how  Jesus  had  died  for  little  children,  and  all  this, 
because  he  did  not  believe  it.     But  he  obeyed  his 


284  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN: 

own  life-long  rule,  did  the  best  lie  could  under  the 
embarrassing  circumstances,  and  gave  them  a  little 
wholesome  advice  entirely  free  from  the  usual  Sun- 
day-school cant. 

/?£/.  ROBERT  COLLYER. 
Robert  Collyer  states  that  Lincoln,  just  before  he 

was  elected  President,  visited  the  office  of  the  Chicago 
Tribune,  and  picking  up  a  volume  of  Theodore  Park- 
er's writings,  turned  to  Dr.  Ray  and  remarked :  "  I 
think  that  I  stand  about  where  that  man  stands." 
ALLEN  THORNDIKE  RICE. 
The  lamented  Allen  Thorndike  Rice,  whose  brilliant 

editorial  management  of  the  North  Atnerican  Review 
has  placed  this  periodical  in  the  front  rank  of  Ameri- 
can magazines,  in  his  Introduction  to  the  "  Reminis- 
cences of  Lincoln,"  says  :  "  The  Western  settlers  had 
no  respect  for  English  traditions,  whether  of  Church 
or  State.  Accustomed  all  their  lives  to  grapple  with 
nature  face  to  face,  they  thought  and  they  spoke,  with 
all  the  boldness  of  unrestrained  sincerity,  on  every 
topic  of  human  interest  or  sacred  memory,  without 
the  slightest  recognition  of  any  right  of  external  au- 
thority to  impose  restrictions,  or  even  to  be  heard  in 
protest  against  their  intellectual  independence.  As 
their  life  developed  the  utmost  independence  of  creed 
and  individuality,  he  whose  originality  was  the  most 
fearless    and  self-contained  was    chief  among  them. 


WAS    HE    A    CHRISTIAN  ?  285 

Among  such  a  people,  blood  of  their  blood  and  bone 
of  their  bone,  differing  from  them  only  in  stature^ 
Abraham  Lincoln  arose  to  rule  tlio  American  people 
with  a  more  than  kinglj  power,  and  received  from 
them  a  more  than  feudal  loyalty." 

So  eager  is  the  church  for  proofs  of  Lincoln's 
piety  that  the  most  incredible  anonymous  story  in 
support  of  this  claim  is  readily  accepted  and  pub- 
lished by  the  religious  press  as  authentic  history.  By 
this  means  the  masses  have  gradually  come  to  regard 
Lincoln  as  a  devout  Christian.  It  is  evident  that 
Mr.  Rice  had  these  fabulous  tales  in  mind  when  he 
wrote  the  following :  "  Story  after  story  and  trait 
after  trait,  as  varying  in  value  as  in  authenticity, 
has  been  added  to  the  Lincolniana,  until  at  last  the 
name  of  the  great  war  President  has  come  to  be  a  bio- 
graphic lodestone,  attracting  withqut  distinction  or 
discrimination  both  the  true  and  false." 

ROBERT  C.  ADAMS. 
The  noted  author,  Capt.  Robert  C.  Adams  of 
Montreal,  Can.,  says :  "  It  is  significant  that  in 
political  revolution  it  is  the  Freethinker  who  is 
usually  the  leader.  Franklin,  Paine,  Jefferson,  Wash- 
ington, were  the  chief  founders  of  the  American 
Republic,  and  Lincoln  presided  at  its  second  hirth. 
Mazzini   and   Garibaldi   are    the   heroes   of   United 


286  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN: 

Italy;  Koussean,  Yoltaire,  and  Victor  Hugo  have 
been  the  chief  inspirers  of  Democratic  France " 
{New  Ideal). 

THEODORE  STANTON. 
In  the    Westminster  Bevlew  for  September,  1891, 

Mr.  Stanton  had  an  article  discussing  the  moral 
character  and  religious  belief  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
Of  his  religious  belief,  he  says  :  "  If  Lincoln  had 
lived  and  died  an  obscure  Springfield  lawyer  and 
politician  he  would  unquestionably  have  been  classed 
by  his  neighbors  among  Freethinkers.  But,  as  is 
customary  with  the  church,  whether  Roman  Catholic 
or  Protestant,  when  Lincoln  became  one  of  the  great 
of  the  world  an  attempt  was  made  to  claim  him.  In 
trying  to  arrive  at  a  correct  comprehension  of  Lin- 
coln's theology  this  fact  should  be  borne  in  mind  in 
sifting  the  testimony.  Another  very  important  warp- 
ing influence  which  should  not  be  lost  sight  of  was 
Lincoln's  early  ambition  for  political  preferment. 
Now,  the  shrewd  American  politician  with  an  elastic 
conscience  joins  some  church,  and  is  always  seen  on 
Sunday  in  the  front  pews.  But  the  shrewd  politician 
who  has  not  an  elastic  conscience — and  this  was 
Lincoln's  case — simply  keeps  mum  on  his  religious 
views,  or,  when  he  must  touch  on  the  subject,  deals 
only  in  platitudes." 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  287 

After  citing  the  testimouj  of  many  of  Lincoln's 
friends,  Mr.  Stanton  concludes  :  "  A  man  about 
whose  theology  such  things  can  be  said  is  of  course 
far  removed  from  orthodoxy.  It  may  even  be  ques- 
tioned whether  he  is  a  Theist,  whether  he  is  a  Deist. 
That  he  is  a  Freethinker  is  evident ;  that  he  is  an 
Agnostic  is  probable." 

GEO.  M.  McCRIE. 

In  the  Open  Court  for  Nov.  26,  1891,  Mr.  McCrie 
contributes  an  article  on  "  What  Was  Abraham  Lin- 
coln's Creed  ?  "  Concerning  Lincoln's  allusions  to 
God,  he  says  :  "  A  Deity  thus  shelved  or  not  shelved, 
according  to  the  dictates  of  political  expediency,  or 
of  individual  opinion  as  to  the  *  propriety  '  of  either 
course  is  no  Deity  at  all.  He  is  as  fictional  as  the 
'  John  Doe  '  or  <  Kichard  Eoe  '  of  a  legal  writ,  and 
anyone  making  use  of  euch  a  creation — the  puppet, 
not  the  parent,  of  his  own  Egoity — is  supposed  to 
know  with  what  he  is  dealing.  Orthodox  religionism 
may  well  despair  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  of  George 
Washington,  Benjamin  Franklin,  or  President  Jef- 
ferson." 

GEN.  M.  M.    TRUMBULL. 

General  Trumbull,  of  Chicago,  in  the  Open  Court 
of  Dec,  3,  1891,  writes:  The  religion  that  begs  the 
patronage  of  presidents  doubts  its  own  theology,  for 


288  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  : 

the  true  God  needs  not  the  favor  of  men.  .  .  . 
Some  of  Ms  [Lincoln's]  tributes  to  Deity  are  merely 
rhetorical  emphasis,  but  others  were  not.  Cicero 
often  swore  *  By  Hercules,'  as  in  the  oration  against 
Catiline,  although  he  believed  no  more  in  Hercules 
than  Abraham  Lincoln  believed  in  any  church-made 
God." 

REI/.  DAVID  SWING.  D.D. 
In  a  sermon  on  "Washington  and  Lincoln,"  the 
most  eminent  and  popular  divine  of  Chicago,  Dr. 
Swing,  said:  "  It  is  often  lamented  by  the  churchmen 
that  Washington  and  Lincoln  possessed  little  religion 
except  that  found  in  the  word  'God.'  All  that  can 
here  be  affirmed  is  that  what  the  religion  of  those 
two  men  lacked  in  theological  details  it  made  up  in 
greatness.  Their  minds  were  born  with  a  love  of 
great  principles.  .  .  .  There  are  few  instar  ces 
in  which  a  mind  great  enough  to  reach  great  princi- 
ples in  politics  has  been  satisfied  with  a  fanatical 
religion.  ...  It  must  not  be  asked  for  Wash- 
ington and  Lincoln  that,  having  reached  greatness  in 
political  principles,  they  should  have  loved  littleness 
in  piety." 

REV.  JENKIN  LLOYD  JONES. 

The  Rev.  J.  Lloyd  Jones,  one  of  Chicago's  most 
eloquent  divines,  in  a  sermon  preached  in  All  Souls 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  289 

Church,  Dec.  9,  1888,  gave  utterance  to  the  follow- 
ing: "  Are  there  not  thousands  who  have  loved  virtue 
who  did  not  accept  Jesus  Christ  in  any  supernatural 
or  miraculous  fashion,  who  if  they  knew  of  him  at 
all  knew  of  him  only  as  the  Nazarene  peasant — the 
man  Jesus  ?  Such  was  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  tender 
prophet  of  the  gospel  of  good  will  upon  earth ; 
Charles  Sumner,  the  great  apostle  of  human  liberty ; 
Gerrit  Smith,  the  St.  John  of  political  reform; 
William  EUery  Channing,  our  sainted  preacher ; 
Theodore  Parker,  the  American  Luther,  hurling  his 
defiance  at  the  devils  of  bigotry  ;  John  Stuart  Mill 
and  Harriet  Martineau — yes,  to  take  an  extreme 
case,  the  genial  and  over-satirical  Robert  G.  luger- 
soll,  are  among  those  who  love  goodness  and  foster 
nobility,  though  they  have  no  clear  vision  into 
futurity  and  confess  no  other  lordship  in  him  of 
Nazareth  save  the  dignity  of  aim  and  tenderness  of 

life." 

REV.  JOHN  W.  CHADWICK. 

In  an  address  delivered  in  Tremont  Temple,  Bos- 
ton, May  30,  1872.  the  Rev.  John  W.  Chadwick,  of 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  referring  to  the  proposed  religious 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
said:  "  Of  the  six  men  who  have  done  most  to  make 
America  the  wonder  and  the  joy  she  is  to  all  of  us, 


290  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN! 

not  one  could  be  the  citizen  of  a  government  so  con- 
stituted; for  Wasliington  and  Franklin  and  Jeffer- 
son, certainly  the  three  mightiest  leaders  in  our 
early  history,  were  heretics  in  their  day,  Deists, 
as  men  called  them ;  and  Garrison  and  Lincoln  and 
Sumner,  certainly  the  three  mightiest  in  these  later 
times,  would  all  be  disfranchised  by  the  proposed 
amendment. 

•         ••••*••• 

**  Lincoln  could  not  have  taken  the  oath  of  office 
had  such  a  clause  been  in  the  Constitution." 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  291 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

EVIDENCE    GATHERED    FROM    LINCOLN'S    LETTERS, 
SPEECHES,   AND   CONVERSATIONS. 

The  Bible  and  Christianity — Christ's  Divinity — Future  Re- 
wards and  Punishments — Freedom  of  Mind — Fatalism — Provi- 
dence— Lines  in  Copy-book — Parker — Paine — Opposition  of 
Church — Clerical  Officiousness  Rebuked — Irreverent  Jokes — 
Profanity — Temperance  Reform — Indorsement  of  Lord  Boling- 
broke's  Writings — Golden  Rule. 

The  testimony  of  one  hundred  witnesses  will  now 
be  supplemented  bj  evidence  from  the  tongue  and 
pen  of  Lincoln  himself.  The  greater  portion  of  what 
be  wrote  and  uttered  against  Christianity  has  per- 
ished; but  enough  has  been  preserved  to  demon- 
strate, even  in  the  absence  of  other  evidence,  that  he 
was  not  a  Christian.  From  his  letters,  speeches, 
and  recorded  conversations,  the  following  radical 
sentiments  have  been  extracted. 

Notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  Holland  and  Bate- 
man  to  prove  that  Lincoln  was  a  believer  in  Chris- 
tianity, it  is  admitted  that  in  his  conversation  with 
Bateman,  he  said:  "I  am  not  a  Christian"  (Hol- 
land's Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  236,  237). 


292  ABEAHAM   LINCOLN: 

When  his  Cliristian  friends  at  Petersburg  inter- 
fered to  prevent  his  proposed  duel  with  Shields,  and 
told  him  that  it  was  contrary  to  the  teachings  of  the 
Bible  and  Christianity,  he  remarked  : 

"  The  Bible  is  not  my  book,  nor  Christianity  my 
profession  "  (Letter  of  W.  Perkins). 

"While  at  Washington,  in  a  letter  to  his  old  friend. 
Judge  Wakefield,  written  in  18G2,  in  answer  to  inqui- 
ries respecting  his  belief  and  the  expressed  hope 
that  he  had  become  convinced  of  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity, he  replied  as  follows  : 

"My  earlier  views  of  the  unsoundness  of  the 
Christian  scheme  of  salvation  and  the  human  origin 
of  the  Scriptures  have  become  clearer  and  stronger 
with  advancing  years  and  I  see  no  reason  for  think- 
ing I  shall  ever  change  them." 

In  a  discussion  touching  upon  the  paternity  of 
Jesus,  he  said :  "  There  must  have  been  sexual  inter- 
course between  man  and  woman,  and  not  between  God 
and  his  daughter." 

The  above  words  were  uttered  in  the  presence  of 
Mr.  Green  Caruthers  and  Mr.  W.  A.  Browning,  of 
Springfield.  Lincoln  contended  that  Jesus  was  either 
the  son  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  or  the  illegitimate  son 
of  Mary. 

In    a   conversation   with   his    friend,    Mr.    E.    H. 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAK  ?  298 

Wood,  of  Springfield,  concerning  the  doctrine  of  end^ 
less  punishment,  he  said  : 

"  There  is  no  hell" 

In  regard  to  this  subject,  he  often  observed : 

"  If  God  be  a  just  God,  all  will  be  saved  or  none  " 
{ManforcVs  Magazine). 

The  orthodox  idea  of  God — a  God  that  creates 
poor,  fallible  beings,  and  then  forever  damns  them 
for  failing  to  believe  what  it  is  impossible  for  them 
to  believe — he  abhorred.  The  Golden  Kule  was  his 
moral  standard,  and  by  this  standard  he  measured 
not  only  the  conduct  of  man,  but  of  God  himself. 
Like  the  irrepressible  Dr.  T.  L.  Brown,  he  wanted 
God  to  ■  damn  others  as  he  would  be  damned  him- 
self." He  delighted  to  repeat  the  epitaph  of  the  old 
Kickapoo  Indian,  Johnnie  Kongapod  : 

"  Here  lies  poor  Johnnie  Kongapod ; 
Have  mercy  on  him,  gracious  God, 
As  he  would  do  if  he  were  God 
And  you  were  Johnnie  Kongapod." 

Lincoln  thought  that  God  ought  at  least  to  be  as 
merciful  as  a  respectable  savage. 

Mauy  contend  that  the  doctrine  of  future  rewards 
and  punishments,  even  if  untrue,  has  a  restraining 
influence  upon  the  masses  of  mankind.  That  Lin- 
coln did  not  share  this  fallacious  opinion,  is  shown 
by  the  following  extract  from  an  address  delivered 
in  Springfield  in  1842 : 


294  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN: 

"  Pleasures  to  be  enjoyed,  or  pains  to  be  endured, 
after  we  sliall  be  dead  and  gone,  are  but  little  re- 
garded. .  .  .  There  is  something  so  ludicrous, 
in  promises  of  good,  or  threats  of  evil,  a  great  way 
off,  as  to  render  the  whole  subject  with  which  they 
are  connected,  easily  turned  into  ridicule.  *  Better 
lay  down  that  spade  you're  stealing,  Paddy — If  you 
don't,  you'll  pay  for  it  at  the  Day  of  Judgment.' 
'  Be  the  powers,  if  ye'll  credit  me  so  long  I'll  take 
another'  "  (Lincoln  Memorial  Album,  p.  91). 

Commenting  upon  the  question  of  one's  returning 
and  communicating  with  his  friends  after  death,  he 
observed  : 

*'  It  is  a  doubtful  question  whether  we  ever  get 
anywhere  to  get  back  "  (Statement  of  E.  H.  Wood). 

He  did  not  believe  in  the  freedom  of  the  will.  An 
observation  which  he  repeatedly  made  was  the  fol- 
lowing :  No  man  has  freedom  of  mind  "  (Testimony 
of  W.  H.  Herndon). 

His  fatalistic  notions  are  confirmed  by  his  own 
words  :  "  I  have  all  my  life  been  a  fatalist.  What  is 
to  be  will  be  ;  or,  rather,  I  have  found  all  my  life,  as 
Hamlet  says : 

'  There's  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends, 
Rough-hew  them  how  we  will.' " 

(Every-Day  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  198). 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  29o 

The  following   was    a  favorite  maxim  with  him : 

**  "What  is  to  be  will  be,  aud  no  prayers  of  ours  can 
arrest  the  decree  "  (Statement  of  Mrs.  Lincoln). 

In  a  speech  on  Kansas,  delivered  in  1856,  he  used 
the  following  words  in  regard  to  Providence  : 

"  Friends,  I  agree  with  you  in  Providence  ;  but  I 
believe  in  the  Providence  of  the  most  men,  the 
largest  purse,  and  the  longest  cannon  "  (Lincoln's 
Speeches,  p.  140). 

The  writer  has  in  his  possession,  among  others  of 
Lincoln's  papers,  a  leaf  from  his  copybook,  tattered 
and  yellow  from  age,  on  which,  seventy  years  ago, 
Lincoln,  a  school-boy  of  fourteen,  wrote  the  follow- 
ing characteristic  lines  : 

"  Abraham   Lincoln,   his   hand   and  pen ; 
He  will  be  good,  but  God  knows  when." 

If  by  good  he  meant  ^^VM5,  the  prophecy  was  never 
fulfilled. 

But  a  short  time  before  he  was  elected  President, 
he  said  to  Dr.  Eay :  "  I  think  that  I  stand  about 
where  that  man  [Theodore  Parker]  stands  "  (State- 
ment of  Rev.  Robert  CoUyer). 

The  author  whose  writings  exerted  the  greatest 
influence  upon  Lincoln's  mind,  in  a  theological  way, 
was  Thomas  Paine.  Ah !  that  potential  "  Age  of 
Reason  !  "     Criticise  it  as  you  may,  no  one  ever  yet 


296  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN: 

carefully  perused  its  pages  and  then  honestly  afl&rmed 
that  the  Bible  is  the  infallible  word  of  God.  Hern- 
don  and  others  declare  that  Paine  was  a  part  of 
Lincoln  from  1834  till  his  death.  To  a  friend  ke 
said : 

"  I  never  tire  of  reading  Paine "  (Statement  of 
James  Tuttle). 

In  the  later  years  of  his  life,  when  the  subject  of 
religion  was  mentioned,  with  a  knowing  smile,  he 
was  wont  to  remark  : 

''  It  will  not  do  to  investigate  the  subject  of  relig- 
ion too  closely,  as  it  is  apt  to  lead  to  Infidelity " 
{Manford's  Magazine). 

It  has  been  stated  that  Lincoln  was  opposed  in 
his  political  campaigns  on  account  of  his  disbelief. 
This  is  confirmed  by  a  letter  he  wrote  to  Martin  M. 
Morris,  of  Petersburg,  111.,  March  26, 1843.  In  this 
letter,  he  says : 

"  There  was,  too,  the  strangest  combination  of 
church  influence  against  me.  Baker  is  a  Campbell- 
ite;  and  therefore,  as  I  suppose,  with  few  exceptions, 
got  all  that  church.  My  wife  has  some  relatives  in 
the  Presbyterian  churches,  and  some  with  the  Epis- 
copal churches  ;  and  therefore,  wherever  it  would 
tell,  I  was  set  down  as  either  the  one  or  the  other, 
while  it  was  everywhere  contended  that  no  Christian 
ought  to  go  for  me,  because  I  belonged  to  no  church 
—was  suspected  of  beins;  a  Deist.     .    .     .     Those 


WAS  HE  A   CHEISTIAN?  297 

influences  levied  a  tax  of  a  considerable  per  cent  upon 
my  strength  throughout  the  religious  controversy  " 
(Lamon's  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  271). 

He  never  changed  his  opinions,  and  the  church 
never  ceased  to  oppose  him.  In  the  Bateman  inter- 
view, seventeen  years  later,  he  was  compelled  to  note 
its  relentless  intolerance : 

"  Here  are  twenty-three  ministers  of  diflferent  de- 
nominations, and  all  of  them  are  against  me  but 
three  ;  and  here  are  a  great  many  prominent  mem- 
bers of  the  churches,  a  very  large  majority  of  whom 
are  against  me  "  (Holland's  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  236). 

For  thirty  years  the  church  endeavored  to  crush 
Lincoln,  but  when,  in  spite  of  her  malignant  opposi- 
tion, he  achieved  a  glorious  immortality,  this  same 
church,  to  hide  the  mediocrity  of  her  devotees,  at- 
tempts to  steal  his  deathless  name. 

In  a  speech  delivered  in  Springfield,  in  1857, 
alluding  to  the  negro,  he  said  : 

"  All  the  powers  of  the  earth  seem  rapidly  combin- 
ing against  him.  Mammon  is  after  him,  .  .  . 
and  the  theology  of  the  day  is  fast  joining  in  the 
cry  "  (Lincoln  Memorial  Album,  p.  100). 

The  theology  of  the  day  was  orthodox  Christian- 
ity. "  In  this  sentence,"  says  Mr.  Herndon,  "  he  in- 
tended to  hit  Christianity  a  left-handed  blow,  and  a 
hard  one." 

In  his  Second  Inaugural  address,  referring  to  the 


298  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN! 

contending  Christian  elements  in  the  civil  war,  he 
says: 

"  Both  read  the  same  Bible  and  pray  to  the  same 
God,  and  each  invokes  his  aid  against  the  other." 

What  a  commentary  upon  the  hypocritical  assump- 
tion that  Christians  possess  an  infallible  moral 
standard,  is  contained  in  the  above  words  ! 

The  "  Lincoln  Memorial  Album  "  pretends  to  give 
the  Second  Inaugural  complete,  but  omits  the  words 
quoted.  As  this  address  comes  almost  immediately 
after  his  reputed  speech  to  the  "  Illinois  clergyman," 
the  editor  probably  noticed  a  lack  of  harmony  be- 
tween the  two,  and  thought  that  the  retention  ol 
these  heretical  words  would  cast  suspicion  upon  the 
genuineness  of  that  remarkable  confession.  The 
"Memorial  Album  "  is  a  meritorious  work,  but  had 
Mr.  Oldroyd  manifested  as  great  a  desire  to  present 
the  genuine  utterances  of  Lincoln  as  the  apocryphal, 
its  value  would  have  been  enhanced.  Tlie  unmuti- 
lated  version  of  the  last  Inaugural  may  be  found  in 
Holland's  "  Life  of  Lincoln,"  pp.  503,  504  ;  Arnold's 
"  Life  of  Lincoln,"  pp.  403,  404  ;  Arnold's  "  Lincoln 
and  Slavery,"  pp.  625-627 ;  and  "  The  Every-Day 
Life  of  Lincoln,"  pp.  681,  682. 

No  President,  probably,  was  ever  so  much  annoyed 
by  the  clergy  as  Lincoln.  The  war  produced  an  in- 
creased religious  fervor,  and  theological  tramps  in- 
Qumerable,   usually  labeled   "D.   D./'   visited    the 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  299 

White  House,  each  with  a  missiou  to  perform  and  a 
precious  morsel  of  advice  to  ofter.  In  the  following 
caustic  words,  he  expresses  his  contempt  for  their 
officiousness  : 

"  I  am  approached  with  the  most  opposite  opinions 
and  advice,  and  by  religious  men  who  are  certain 
they  represent  the  Divine  will.  ...  I  hope  it 
will  not  be  irreverent  in  me  to  say,  that  if  it  be 
probable  that  God  would  reveal  his  will  to  others, 
on  a  point  so  connected  with  my  duty,  it  might  be 
supposed  he  would  reveal  it  directly  to  me  "  (Relig- 
ious Convictions  of  Abraham  Lincoln). 

Equally  pertinent,  and,  indeed,  similar  was  his 
language  to  a  pious  lady,  a  Friend,  who  came  as 
God's  agent  to  instruct  him  what  to  do  : 

"  I  have  neither  time  nor  disposition  to  enter  into 
discussion  with  the  Friend,  and  end  this  occasion 
by  suggesting  for  her  consideration  the  question, 
whether,  if  it  be  true  that  the  Lord  has  appointed 
me  [she  claimed  that  he  had]  to  do  the  works  she 
has  indicated,  it  is  not  probable  that  he  would  have 
communicated  knowledge  of  the  fact  to  me  as  well 
as  to  her?"  (E very-Day  Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  536, 
537). 

He  steadily  prohibited  his  generals  from  meddling 
with  the  religious  affairs  of  those  residing  within  the 
limits  of  their  respective  departments,  and  at  the 
same  time  counseled  them  not  to  permit  the  pre« 


300  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN : 

tended   sanctity  of  the  church  to  shield  offenders 
from  justice. 

In  a  letter  to  General  Curtis,  censuring  the  pro- 
vost marshal  of  St.  Louis  for  interfering  with  church 
matters,  he  writes  : 

"  The  United  States  Government  must  not  under- 
take to  run  the  churches.  "When  an  individual  in 
a  church,  or  out  of  it,  becomes  dangerous  to  the 
public  interest  he  must  be  checked "  (Nicolay  and 
Hay's  Life  of  Lincoln). 

In  an  order  relating  to  a  church  in  Memphis, 
issued  May  13,  1864,  he  said  : 

**  If  there  be  no  military  need  for  the  building, 
leave  it  alone,  neither  putting  any  one  in  or  out  of 
it,  except  on  finding  some  one  preaching  or  practic- 
ing treason,  in  which  case  lay  hands  upon  him,  just 
as  if  he  were  doing  the  same  thing  in  any  other 
building"  (Ibid). 

During  the  war  his  attention  was  called  to  the 
notoriously  bad  character  of  army  chaplains.  He 
expressed  his  contempt  for  them,  and  for  orthodox 
preachers  generally,  by  relating  the  following  story : 

*'  Once,  in  Springfield,  I  was  going  off  on  a  short 
journey,  and  reached  the  depot  a  little  ahead  of 
time.  Leaning  against  the  fence  just  outside  the 
depot  was  a  little  darky  boy,  whom  I  knew,  named 
Dick,  busily  digging  with  his  toe  in  a  mud-puddle. 
As  I  came  up,  I  said,  '  Dick,  what  are  you  about  ? 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  301 

'  Making  a  clmrcli,'  said  he.  '  A  churcli  ?*  said  I ; 
•  what  do  you  mean?'  '  Why,  yes,'  said  Dick,  point- 
ing with  his  toe,  '  don't  you  see  ?  there  is  the  shape 
of  it ;  there's  the  steps  and  front  door — here's  the 
pews,  where  the  folks  set — and  there's  the  pulpit.* 
Yes,  I  see,'  said  I,  '  but  why  don't  you  make  a 
minister  ?'  '  Laws,'  answered  Dick,  with  a  grin,  *  I 
haii-'t  got  mud  enough '  "  (Anecdotes  of  Lincoln,  p. 
86). 

The  most  highly  aristocratic  church  in  Washing- 
ton is  St.  John's  Episcopal  church.  So  very  aristo- 
cratic is  it  that  applicants  for  membership  deem  it 
necessary  to  give  references  respecting  their  social 
standing  in  the  community.  The  New  York  Star 
relates  the  following  joke  which  Lincoln  once  perpe- 
trated at  the  expense  of  this  church : 

"  One  day  during  the  war  a  young  ofl&cer  called  on 
him  to  secure  an  appointment  in  the  army,  and 
brought  with  him  letters  of  recommendation  signed 
by  the  F.  F.  Y.'s  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  There 
had  been  no  application  for  office  before  President 
Lincoln  so  strongly  supported  by  the  aristocracy, 
and,  turning  to  the  young  man,  he  said  he  would 
give  him  the  appointment  and  handed  him  back  the 
papers.  '  Don't  you  want  to  place  the  papers  on 
file  ?'  asked  the  office-seeker.  *  I  supposed  that  was 
the  custom.*  *  Yes,  that  is  the  custom,*  said  Presi- 
dent   Lincoln,  'but  you    had    better    take    them 


302  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

with  you.  as  you  might  want  to  join  St.  John's 
church.' " 

Did  Lincoln  ever  use  profane  language  ?  If  he 
did,  this  fact  will  afford  no  evidence  to  Freethinkers 
that  he  was  a  disbeliever  in  Christianity.  Free- 
thinkers are  as  free  from  this  vice,  if  vice  it  be,  as 
(Christians.  Very  pious  persons,  however,  such  as 
liincoln  is  represented  to  have  been  by  his  Christian 
biographers,  are  very  careful  about  their  use  of  pro- 
fane words.  Christ  commanded  his  followers  to 
pray  in  private,  and  bade  them  swear  not  at  alL 
Devout  Christians  usually  pray  in  public  and  swear 
in  private,  Lincoln  was  but  little  addicted  to  pro- 
fanity, but  if  he  had  occasion  to  use  a  word  of  this 
character  he  did  not  go  to  his  closet  to  use  it.  In  a 
business  letter  to  a  friend,  he  said  : 

"  A  d d  hawk-billed  Yankee  i^  here  besetting 

me  at  every  turn  "  (Lamon's  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  316). 

In  a  letter  to  Speed,  concerning  an  alleged  murder 
case,  he  wrote  : 

"  Hart,  the  little  drayman  that  hauled  Molly 
home  once,  said  it  was  too  damned  bad  to  have  so 
much  trouble  and  no  hanging  "  (Ibid,  p.  321). 

For  the  sake  of  pleasing  the  "  *ools,"  he  attached 
his  signature  to  "  the  pious  nonsense  of  Seward.'" 
With  equal  readiness  he  indorsed  the  profane  non- 
sense (?)  of  Stanton.  During  the  war  the  patriotic 
Lovejoy   had  devised  a  military  scheme  which  }^ 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  303 

believed  would  prove  beneficial  to  tlie  Union  cause, 
and  obtained  an  order  from  the  President  for  its 
execution.  He  took  the  order  to  Stanton,  but  all 
that  ever  resulted  from  it  was  the  following  spirited 
colloquy : 

"  *  Did  Lincoln  give  you  an  order  of  that  kind  ?' 

said  Stanton.      '  He  did,  sir.'     *  Then  he  is  a  d d 

fool,'  said  the  irate  Secretary.     'Do  you  mean  to 

say  the  President  is  a  d d  fool  ?'  asked  Lovejoy, 

in  amazement.  *Tes,  sir,  if  he  gave  you  such  an 
order  as  that.'  The  bewildered  Illinoisan  betook 
himself  at  once  to  the  President,  and  related  the 
result  of  his  conference.     "  Did  Stanton  say  I  Avas  a 

d d  fool?'   asked   Lincoln   at   the   close  of   the 

recital.  *He  did,  sir,  and  repeated  it.'  After  a 
moment's  pause,  and  looking  up,  the  President  said  : 

'  If  Stanton  said  I  was  a  d d  fool,  then  I  must  he 

one,  for  he  is  nearly  always  right,  and  generally  says 
what  he  means  ' "  (Every -Day  Life  of  Lincoln,  pp. 
483,  484). 

At  a  Cabinet  meeting,  in  1863,  when  a  conflict 
between  the  President  and  Congress  regarding  the 
admission  of  certain  representatives  from  loyal  dis- 
tricts of  the  South,  which  he  favored,  was  threat- 
ened, he  turned  to  Secretary  Chase,  and  exclaimed  : 

"  There  it  is,  sir.  I  am  to  be  bullied  by  Congress, 
ami?    If  I  do  I'll  bed d  !" 

When  Lincoln  visited  New  Orleans  he  attended  a 


304  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN! 

slave  sale.  A  beautiful  girl,  almost  white,  was  placed 
upon  the  auction  block  and  exposed  to  the  grossest 
indignities.  As  he  turned  to  leave,  boiling  with 
indignation,  he  exclaimed : 

"  By  God,  if  I  ever  get  a  chance  to  hit  that  insti- 
tution, I  will  hit  it  hard  "  (Arnold's  Life  of  Lincoln, 
Note). 

Thirty  years  later  the  chance  came.  He  struck 
the  blow — a  mortal  one. 

The  following  is  a  prayer  which  Lincoln,  while  at 
the  White  House,  put  into  the  mouth  of  a  belated 
traveler  who  was  caught  in  a  violent  thunder- 
storm : 

"  O  Lord,  if  it  is  all  the  same  to  you,  give  us  a 
little  more  light  and  a  little  less  noise !"  (Six  Months 
at  the  White  House,  p.  49). 

Is  it  possible  that  a  Christian  and  a  Calvinist 
would  repeat  such  an  irreverent,  not  to  say  blas- 
phemous, supplication?  According  to  the  Brooklyn 
Calvinist,  God  visits  such  supplicants  with  paralysis 
and  petrifaction. 

Like  most  Freethinkers,  Lincoln  was  a  genuine 
reformer.  The  Antislavery  reform  was  not  the  only 
reform  that  enlisted  his  support.  At  an  early  day 
he  espoused  the  Temperance  cause.  When  the 
church  was  the  ally  of  intemperance  as  it  was  of 
slavery — when,  to  use  his  own  words,  "From  the 
sideboard  of  the  parson  down  to  the  ragged  pocket 


WAS    KE   A   CHRISTIAN?  305 

of  tlie  liouseless  loafer  intoxicating  liquor  was  con- 
stantly found,"  he  was  laboring  and  lecturing  in 
behalf  of  the  Washingtonian  movement.  With  the 
fervor  of  an  enthusiast,  he  exclaims  in  true  Free- 
thought  language : 

"  Happy  day,  when,  all  appetites  controlled,  all 
passions  subdued,  all  matter  subjugated,  mind,  all- 
conquering  mind,  shall  live  and  move,  the  monarch 
of  the  world  I  Glorious  consummation  !  Hail,  fall 
of  fury !  Reign  of  Reason^  oil  hail  /"  (Lincoln  Me- 
morial Album,  p.  96). 

To  sumptuary  laws  and  to  the  denunciatory 
methods  so  common  among  orthodox  Christians 
to-day,  he  was,  however,  strenuously  opposed.  He 
says : 

"  It  is  not  much  in  the  nature  of  man  to  be  drivefi 
to  anything  ;  still  less  to  be  driven  about  that  which 
is  exclusively  his  own  business"  (Ibid,  p.  86). 

"  When  the  conduct  of  men  is  designed  to  be  in- 
fluenced, persuasion,  kind,  unassuming  persuasion, 
should  ever  be  adopted  "  (lb.,  p.  87). 

His  nephew,  Mr.  Hall,  informed  me  that  Lincoln 
once  made  it  cost  a  meddlesome  clergyman,  of  Coles 
County,  eighty  dollars  for  seizing  and  destroying  a 
quart  of  whisky,  valued  at  twelve  and  a  half  cents, 
and  belonging  to  a  relative  of  theirs. 

In  this  chapter  I  wish  to  present  some  radical 
thoughts,  not  from  the  pen  of  Lincoln  himself,  but 


306  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  ! 

whicli  in  tlie  work  from  which  they  are  taken  bear 
unmistakable  signs  of  his  approval.  Mr.  D.  W.  C. 
Shattuck,  an  old  and  respected  merchant  of  Way- 
land,  Mich.,  has  in  his  possession  a  book  which  be- 
longed to  Lincoln.  Its  history  is  as  follows  :  Shortly 
after  Lincoln's  election  to  the  Presidency  a  young 
man  from  Springfield,  111.,  and  a  relative  or  intimate 
acquaintance  of  Lincoln's,  came  to  board  with  Mr. 
Shattuck,  who  then  resided  in  Kalamazoo.  Looking 
over  the  contents  of  his  trunk  one  day  tlie  young 
man  picked  up  a  book  and  at  the  same  time 
remarked  :  "  That  book  belongs  to  Abe  Lincoln.  I 
forgot  to  return  it  to  him  before  leaving  Springfield. 
It  is  his  favorite  book,  and  I  must  not  fail  to  return 
it."  Mr.  Shattuck  expressing  a  desire  to  peruse  the 
work,  it  was  handed  to  him,  and  the  young  man 
being  soon  after  unexpectedly  called  away,  it  was 
forgotten.  It  proved  to  be  a  volume  of  the  writings 
of  Lord  Bolingbroke,  the  great  English  Infidel.  On 
a  fly-leaf  was  the  signature  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  In 
the  work  certain  passages  which  seem  to  have  espe- 
cially impressed  Lincoln  are  marked  with  a  pencil 
and  in  a  manner  peculiar  to  him.  The  following  are 
the  passages  he  marked,  which  I  have  copied  from 
the  book,  and  which  evidently  received  his  unquali- 
fied indorsement : 

"Abbadie   says    in   his   famous  book,    that    the 
Gospel  of  St.  Matthew  is  cited  by  Clemens  Bishop 


WAS   HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  307 

of  Borne,  a  disciple  of  the  Apostles  ;  that  Barnaljas 
cites  it  in  his  epistle  ;  that  Ij^niatius  and  Polycarp 
receive  it;  and  that  the  same  Fathers,  that  give 
testimony  for  Matthew,  give  it  likewise  for  Mark. 
Nay,  your  lordship  will  find,  I  believe,  that  the 
present  Bishop  of  London,  in  his  third  pastoral 
letter,  speaks  to  the  same  eflfect.  I  will  not  trouble 
you  nor  myself  with  any  more  instances  of  the  same 
kind.  Let  this,  which  occurred  to  me  as  I  was  writ- 
ing, suffice.  It  may  well  suffice  ;  for  I  presume  the 
fact  advanced  by  the  minister  and  the  Bishop  is  a 
mistake.  If  the  Fathers  of  the  First  Century  do 
mention  some  passages  that  are  agreeable  to  what 
we  read  in  our  Evangelists,  will  it  follow  that  these 
Fathers  had  the  same  gospels  before  them  ?  To  say 
so  is  a  manifest  abuse  of  history,  and  quite  inex- 
cusable in  writers  that  knew,  or  should  have  known, 
that  these  Fathers  made  use  of  other  gospels, 
wherein  such  passages  might  be  contained,  or  they 
might  be  preserved  in  unwritten  tradition.  Besides 
which  I  could  almost  venture  to  affirm  that  these 
Fathers  of  the  First  Century  do  not  expressly  name 
the  gospels  we  have  of  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and 
John." 

"  Writers  of  the  Roman  religion  have  attempted  to 
show,  that  the  text  of  the  Holy  Writ  is  on  many  ac- 
counts insufficient  to  be  the  sole  criterion  of  ortho- 
doxy ;  I  apprehend    too  that   they  have   shown  it. 


308  ABBAHAM    LINCOLN! 

Sure  I  am  that  experience,  from  tlie  first  promulga- 
tion of  Christianity  to  this  hour,  shows  abundantly 
with  how  much  ease  and  success  the  most  opposite, 
the  most  extravagant,  nay  the  most  impious  opinions, 
and  the  most  contradictory  faiths,  may  be  founded 
on  the  same  text ;  and  plausibly  defended  by  the 
same  authority.  Writers  of  the  Keformed  religion 
have  erected  their  batteries  against  tradition ;  and 
the  only  difficulty  they  had  to  encounter  in  this 
enterprise  lay  in  leveling  and  pointing  their  cannon 
80  as  to  avoid  demolishing,  in  one  common  ruin,  the 
traditions  they  retain,  and  those  they  reject  Each 
side  has  been  employed  to  weaken  the  cause  and  ex- 
plode the  system  of  his  adversary ;  and,  whilst  they 
have  been  so  employed,  they  have  jointly  laid  their 
axes  to  the  root  of  Christianity ;  for  thus  men  will 
be  apt  to  reason  upon  what  they  have  advanced.  *  If 
the  text  has  not  that  authenticity,  clearness,  and 
precision  which  are  necessary  to  establish  it  as  a 
divine  and  a  certain  rule  of  faith  and  practice  ;  and 
if  the  tradition  of  the  church  from  the  first  ages  of  it 
till  the  days  of  Luther  and  Calvin,  has  been 
corrupted  itself,  and  has  served  to  corrupt  the  faith 
and  practice  of  Christians ;  there  remains  at  this  time 
no  standard  at  all  of  Christianity.  By  consequence 
either  this  religion  was  not  originally  of  divine  in- 
stitution, or  else  God  has  not  provided  effectually  for 
preserving  the  genuine  purity  of  it,  and  the  gates  of 


WAS   HE   A  CHRISTIAN?  309 

hell  have  prevaileil,  in  contradiction  to  his  promise, 
against  the  church.' " 

"  I  have  read  somewhere,  perhaps  in  the  works  of 
St.  Jerome,  that  this  Father  justifies  the  opinion  of 
those  who  think  it  impossible  to  fix  any  certain 
chronology  on  that  of  the  Bible  ;  and  this  opinion 
will  be  justified  still  better,  to  the  understanding  of 
every  man  that  considers  how  grossly  the  Jews 
blunder  whenever  they  meddle  with  chronology." 

"  The  resurrection  of  letters  was  a  fatal  period  ;  the 
Christian  system  has  been  attacked,  and  wounded 
too,  very  severely  since  that  time." 

When  interrogated  as  to  why  he  had  never  united 
with  any  church,  Lincoln  replied  : 

"  When  you  show  me  a  church  based  on  the  Golden 
Rule  as  its  only  creed,  then  I  will  unite  with  it." 

He  never  joined  a  church,  because  of  all  the  Chris- 
tian sects,  not  one  could  show  such  a  creed.  The 
Golden  Rule — conceding  to  others  the  same  rights 
he  claimed  for  himself — was,  however,  the  very 
cornerstone  of  Freethought,  and  hence  he  remained 
a  Freethinker. 


310  ABBAHAM    LINOOLN 


CHAPTER    XV. 

Recapitulation  and  Conclusion. 

Character  of  GhrisUau  Teslimony — Summary  of  Evidence  Adduced 
in  Proof  of  Lincoln's  Unbelief— i^ouglas  an  Unbeliever — Theodore 
Parker's  Theology — Fallacy  of  Claims  Respecting  Lincoln's  Reputed 
Conversion— His  Invocations  of  Deity— His  Alleged  Regard  for  the 
Sabbath— The  Church  and  Hypocrisy— Lincoln's  Religion. 

In  the  prosecution  of  this  inquiry,  the  testimony 
cf  one  hundred  and  twenty  witnesses  has  been  pre- 
sented. The  testimony  of  twenty  of  these  witnesses 
is  to  the  effect  that  Lincoln  was  a  Christian ;  the 
testimony  of  one  hundred  is  to  the  effect  that  he  was 
not. 

Of  those  who  have  testified  in  support  of  the  claim 
that  Lincoln  was  a  Christian,  ten  admit  that  during 
a  part  of  his  life  he  was  a  disbeliever  in  Christianity, 
while  not  one  of  the  remaining  ten  disputes  the  fact. 
If  he  never  changed  his  belief  then  he  died  an  unbe- 
liever. Did  he  change  his  belief  and  become  a  con- 
vert to  Christianity  ?  It  devolves  upon  those  who 
affirm  that  he  did  to  prove  it.  Have  they  done  this  ? 
They  have  not.  Their  attempts  have  been  in  every 
injstance  pitiable  failures.      The  unreasonable  and 


WAS   H£  A   CHRISTIAN?  311 

conflicting  character  of  tlie  testimony  adduced 
refutes  itself.  When  was  he  converted  ?  No  less 
than  five  different  dates  have  been  assigned.  One 
witness  states  that  it  was  in  1848 ;  one,  that  it  was 
in  1858  ;  another,  that  it  was  in  1862 ;  another,  that 
it  was  in  July,  1863  ;  and  still  another,  that  it  was 
in  November,  1863. 

The  remarkable  character  of  the  statements  re- 
corded in  Chapter  I. — remarkable  when  compared 
with  the  statements  given  in  the  preceding  ten  chap- 
ters, and  not  less  remarkable  when  compared  with 
each  other — may  be  variously  accounted  for.  A 
part  of  them  are  based  upon  a  false  premise,  an 
erroneous  conception  of  what  tht?  term  Christian 
means ;  a  portion  of  them  are  merely  the  expressions 
of  beliefs  unsupported  by  actual  knowledge  ;  while 
a  not  inconsiderable  share  of  them  are  the  state- 
ments of  those  who  have  knowingly  and  deliberately 
borne  false  witness.  These  witnesses  comprise  :  1. 
Those  who  do  not  know  what  constitutes  a  Christian 
— who  confound  Christianity  with  morality — who 
affirm  that  he  was  a  Christian  simply  because  he 
was  a  moral  man.  2.  Those  who  do  not  know  what 
his  religious  views  were,  but  who  infer  that  he  was 
a  Christian  because  others  have  declared  that  he 
was,  and  because  of  the  frequent  allusions  to  Deity 
that  occur  in  his  speeches  and  state  papers.  3. 
Those  who  know  that  he  was  not  a  Christian,  but 


312  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN: 

who  believe  it  to  be  right  and  proper  to  lie  for  the 
glory  of  ChrisI  lanitj  and  the  profit  of  its  priests. 

The  testimony  advanced  in  support  of  the  claim  of 
Lincoln's  Christianity  is,  for  the  most  part,  the  testi- 
mony of  orthodox  Christians — a  majority  of  them 
orthodox  clergymen.  Dr.  Holland,  the  chief  of  these 
Christian  claimants,  says:  ''The  fact  is  a  matter  of 
history  that  he  never  exposed  his  own  religious  life 
to  those  who  had  no  sympathy  with  it."  This,  so 
far  as  the  later  years  of  his  life  are  concerned,  is 
substantially  true;  and  this  very  fact  precludes  the 
possibility  of  these  orthodox  witnesses  being  able  to 
state  from  personal  knowledge  what  his  religious 
views  were. 

In  refutation  of  this  claim,  I  have  presented  the 
testimony  of  those  who  were  nearest  to  Lincoln,  in 
the  confidential  relations  of  life.  I  have  presented 
the  testimony  of  his  wife,  the  testimony  of  his  step- 
mother, the  testimony  of  his  step-sister,  the  testi- 
mony of  his  cousin,  the  testimony  of  his  nephew, 
the  testimony  of  his  three  law  partners,  the  testi- 
mony of  four  members  of  his  Cabinet,  the  testimony 
of  his  private  secretary,  the  testimony  of  his  exec- 
utor, the  testimony  of  seven  of  his  biographers,  and 
the  testimony  of  many  more  of  his  most  intimate 
friends  both  in  Illinois  and  at  Washington. 

That  he  was  not  an  orthodox  Christian,  as  claimed, 
is  attested  by  nearly  all  of  the  one  hundred  witnesses 


WAS    HE    A    CHRISTIAN  ?  813 

whose  testimoDj  has  been  given;  that  he  was  not  in 
any  sense  of  the  term  a  Christinn  is  proved  by  the 
testimony  of  a  majority  of  them. 

I  affirmed  that  he  was  not  religious  in  his  youth — 
that  he  was  a  skeptic  in  Indiana.  In  proof  of  this  I 
have  adduced  the  testimony  of  his  step-mother, 
Sarah  Lincoln;  his  step-sister,  Matilda  Moore;  his 
cousin,  Dennis  F.  Hanks;  his  nephew,  John  Hall; 
his  law  partner,  W.  H.  Herndon,  and  his  biographer, 
Col.  Ward  H.  Lamon. 

I  affirmed  that  he  was  an  Infidel  or  Freethinker, 
during  the  thirty  years  that  he  resided  in  Illinois. 
In  support  of  this  I  have  given  the  testimony  of 
Colonel  Lamori,  W.  H.  Herndon,  Maj.  John  T. 
Stuart,  Col.  James  H.  Matheny,  Dr.  C.  H.  Ray,  W. 
H.  Hannah,  James  W.  Keys,  Jesse  W.  Fell,  Judge 
David  Davis,  Wm.  McNeely,  Mr.  Lynan,  Wm.  G. 
Green,  Joshua  F.  Speed,  Green  Caruthers,  Squire 
Perkins,  Judge  Gillespie,  John  Decamp,  James 
Gorley,  Dr.  Wm.  Jayne,  Jesse  K.  Dubois,  Judge 
Logan,  Leonard  Swett,  W.  H.  T.  Wakefield,  D.  W. 
Wilder,  Dr.  B.  F.  Gardner,  J.  K.  Vandemark,  Judge 
Leachman,  Orin  B.  Gould,  Edward  Butler,  M.  S. 
Gowin,  J.  H.  Chenery,  J.  B.  Spalding,  Ezra  String- 
ham,  Col.  R.  G.  Ingersoll,  A.  Jeffrey,  Dr.  McNeal, 
Charles  McGrew,  J.  L.  Morrell,  Judge  A.  D.  Norton, 
W.  W.  Perkins,  H.  K.  Magie,  James  Tuttle,  Leonard 
Volk,    Col.    F.    S.    Rutherford,    E.    H.   Woods,    Dr. 


314  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN:  * 

J.  J.  Thompson,  A.  J.  Grover,  Judge  Nelson,  and 
others. 

I  affirmed  that  he  did  not  change  his  belief  after 
leaving  Illinoi3 — that  he  was  not  converted  to  Chris- 
tianity in  Washington — that  he  died  an  unbeliever. 
In  confirmation  of  this  I  have  presented  the  testi- 
mony of  his  wife,  Mary  Lincoln;  of  his  private 
secretary.  Colonel  Nicolay;  of  his  executor.  Judge 
Davis ;  of  his  biographer.  Colonel  Lamon ;  and  of  his 
intimate  associates,  Geo.  W.  Julian,  John  B.  Alley, 
Schuyler  Colfax,  Hugh  McCnJloch,  A.  J.  Grover, 
Donn  Piatt,  Judge  Nelson,  and  others. 

Many  of  these  witnesses  simply  testify  to  his  dis- 
belief in  the  Christian  system  as  a  whole  without 
reference  to  his  particular  views  concerning  its  in- 
dividual tenets.  Every  statement  of  his  unbelief  as 
presented  in  the  introduction  has,  how;ever,  been 
substantiated  by  the  testimony  of  one  or  more  wit- 
nesses. 

That  he  did  not  believe  in  the  Christian  Deity, 
that  he  even  held  Agnostic  and  Atheistic  views,  at 
times,  is  proved  by  the  testimony  of  W.  H.  Herndon, 
Colonel  Matheny,  Judge  Nelson,  Jesse  K.  Dubois, 
and  D.  W.  TMlder. 

That  he  was  an  Agnostic  in  regard  to  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul  it  attested  by  E.  H.  Wood,  Judge 
Nelson,  and  W.  H.  Herndon. 

That  he  did  not  believe  that  the  Bible  is  the  word 


WAS    HE    A    CHRISTIAN?  315 

of  God  is  affirmed  bv  Colonel  Lamon,  John  T. 
Stuart,  Judge  Mathenv,  W.  H.  Herndon,  Jesse  W. 
Fell,  Dennis  Hanks,  W.  Perkins,  Colonel  Ruther- 
ford, and  Chambers'  Encyclopedia. 

That  he  did  not  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  was  the 
son  of  God  IS  affirmed  by  Colonel  Lamon,  W.  H. 
Herndon,  Jesse  W.  Fell,  Colonel  Mathenv,  John  T. 
Stuart,  Jas.  W.  Keys,  Judge  Nelson,  D.  W.  Wilder, 
Green  Caruthers,  Colonel  Rutherford,  Rev.  J.  Lloyd 
JoneH,  Chambers'  Encyclopedia,  and  the  New  York 
World. 

That  he  did  not  believe  in  a  special  creation,  the 
statements  of  Mr.  Herndon  clearly  prove. 

That  he  accepted  the  theory  of  Evolution,  so  far 
as  this  theorv  had  been  developed  in  the  "Vestiges 
of  Creation"  and  other  writings  of  his  day,  is  at- 
tested by  the  same  witness. 

That  he  did  not  admit  the  possibility  of  miracles 
is  confirmed  by  the  statement  of  Jesse  W.  Fell,  W. 
Perkins,  Dennis  Hanks,  and  Mr.  Herndon. 

That  he  rejected  the  Christian  doctrine  of  total  or 
inherent  depravity,  William  McNeely  and  Jesse  W. 
Fell  affirm. 

That  he  repudiated  the  doctrine  of  vicarious  atone- 
ment is  sustained  by  the  testimony  of  Jesse  W.  Fell, 
Joshua  F.  Speed,  W.  Perkins,  and  Colonel  Lamon. 

That  he  condemned  the  doctrine  of  forgiveness  for 
Bin,  General  \Vilder  and  Mr.  Herndon  both  testify. 


316  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN: 

That  he  opposed  the  doctrine  of  future  rewards 
and  punishments,  Wm.  H.  Hannah,  E.  H.  Wcod,  A. 
Jeffrey,  Jesse  W.  Fell,  and  Manford's  Magazine,  all 
testify. 

That  he  denied  the  freedom  of  the  will,  Mr.  Hern- 
don  explicitly  affirms. 

That  he  did  not  believe  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer  is 
fully  established  by  the  evidence  of  Mrs.  Lincoln, 
Mr.  Herndon,  and  Dr.  Gardner. 

Tliat  he  was  a  disciple  of  Thomas  Paine  and 
Theodore  Parker  is  shown  by  the  evidence  of  Colo- 
nel L.imon,  W.  H.  Herndon,  James  Tuttle,  Jesse  W. 
Fell,  Dr.  Ray,  Robert  Collyer,  the  Lew  York  World, 
and  Chambers'  Encyclopedia. 

That  he  wrote  a  book  against  Christianity  is  sus- 
tained by  the  testimony  of  Colonel  Matheny,  Judge 
Xelson,  W.  H.  Herndon,  Colonel  Lamon,  J.  B. 
Spalding,  A.  Jeffrey,  J.  H.  Chenery,  Chicago  Herald, 
Manford's  Magazine,  and  Chambers'  Encyclopedia. 

That  Lincoln  did  not  believe  in  the  inspiration  of 
the  Scriptures,  that  he  did  not  believe  in  the  divin- 
ity of  Christ,  that  he  did  not  believe  in  the  freedom 
of  the  will,  that  he  did  not  believe  in  future  rewards 
and  punishments,  that  he  did  not  believe  in  the  effi- 
cacy of  prayer,  that  he  was,  in  short,  a  disbeliever  in 
Christianity,  is  also  attested  by  the  evidence  cited 
from  his  own  recorded  words. 

In   connection   with   this   controversy   the   signifi- 


WAS    HK    A    CHRISTIAN  ?  317 

cance  of  the  following  facts  cannot  be  overlooked: 
1.  Notwithstanding  the  strong  temptation  to  credit 
Lincoln  to  the  popular  faith,  a  majority  of  his  biog- 
raphers have  either  declared  that  he  was  not  a 
Christian,  or  have  refrained  from  afifirming  that  he 
was.  2.  The  secular  press,  fearing  to  offend  the 
church,  has  generally  been  silent  regarding  the 
question.  \^'hen  it  has  ventured  to  express  an 
opinion,  however,  it  has  been  to  concede  his  un- 
belief. 3.  The  leading  encyclopedias,  such  as  the 
Britannica,  Chambers',  New  American,  etc.,  have 
either  admitted  that  he  was  a  Freethinker,  or  have 
made  no  reference  to  his  religious  belief.  4.  In  the 
"Lincoln  Memorial  Album"  appear  two  hundred 
tributes  to  Lincoln,  the  greater  portion  of  them 
from  the  pens  of  Christians.  In  but  two  of  these 
two  hundred  tributes  is  it  claimed  that  Lincoln  was 
a  believer  in  Christianity.  5.  The  "Reminiscences 
of  Lincoln"  contain  thirty-three  articles  on  Lincoln, 
written  by  as  many  distinguished  men  who  were 
acquainted  with  him.  In  not  a  single  instance  in 
this  work,  is  it  asserted  that  he  was  a  Christian.  6. 
In  none  of  the  leading  eulogies  pronounced  upon 
his  character,  at  the  time  of  his  demise,  is  it  affirmed 
that  he  accepted   Christ. 

It  is  stated  that  during  the  last  years  of  his  life 
Lincoln  held  substantially  the  same  theological 
opinions  held  by  Theodore  Parker.     His  own  words 


318  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN: 

are,  referring  to  Parker:  "I  think  that  I  stand 
about  w'here  that  man  stands."  Where  did  Theo- 
dore Parker  t'tand?  The  following  extracts  from 
his  writings  will  show : 

"To  obtain  a  knowledge  of  duty,  a  man  is  not 
sent  away,  outside  of  himself,  to  ancient  documents; 
for  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  the  Word,  is 
very  nigh  him,  even  in  his  heart,  and  by  this  Word 
he  is  to  try  all  documents." 

"There  is  no  intercessor,  angel,  mediator,  between 
man  and  God;  for  man  can  speak  and  God  hear, 
each  for  himself  He  requires  no  advocates  to  plead 
for  men." 

"Manly,  natural  religion — it  is  not  joining  the 
church;  it  is  not  to  believe  in  a  creed,  Hebrew, 
Christian,  Calholic,  Protestant,  Trinitarian,  Uni- 
tarian, Nothingarian.  It  is  not  to  keep  Sunday 
idle;  to  attend  meeting;  to  be  wet  with  water;  to 
read  the  Bible;  to  offer  praj^ers  in  words;  to  take 
bread  and  wine  in  the  meeting-house;  love  a  scape- 
goat Jesus,  or  any  other  theological  claptrap." 

If  Lincoln  was  known  to  be  a  Freethinker,  it  may 
be  asked  why  this  fact  was  not  more  generally  pub- 
lished and  urged  against  him  during  the  Presidential 
campaign  of  1860.  The  answer  is  easy.  His  chief 
opponent,  Douglas,  was  himself  a  Freethinker 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  like  Abraham  Lincoln,  died  an 
unbeliever.     Lite  Washington,  he  declined  the  serv- 


WAS    HE    A    CHRISTIAN  ?  819 

ices  of  a  clergyman  in  his  last  hours.  The  follow- 
ing is  an  extract  from  a  monograph  on  *'The 
Deathbed  of  Douglas,"  published  in  the  Boston 
Budget : 

"When  Stephen  A.  Douglas  lay  stricken  with 
death  at  Chicago;  his  wife,  who  was  a  devout  Roman 
Catholic,  sent  for  Bishop  Duggan,  who  asked 
whether  he  had  ever  been  baptized  according  to  the 
rites  of  any  church.  'Never,'  replied  Mr.  Douglas. 
'Do  you  desire  to  have  mass  said  after  the  ordi- 
nances of  the  holy  Catholic  church?'  inquired  the 
Bishop.  'No,  sir!'  answered  Douglas;  'when  I  do 
I  will  communicate  with  you  freely.' 

"The  Bishop  withdrew,  but  the  next  day  Mrs. 
Douglas  sent  for  him  again,  and,  going  to  the  bed- 
side, he  said:  'Mr.  Douglas,  you  know  your  own 
condition  fully,  and  in  view  of  your  dissolution  do 
you  desire  the  ceremony  of  extreme  unction  to  be 
performed?'  'No!'  replied  the  dying  man,  'I  have 
no  time  to  discuss  these  things  now.' 

''Tbe  Bishop  left  the  room,  and  Mr.  Rhodes,  who 
was  in  attendance,  said:  'Do  you  know  the  clergy- 
men of  this  city?'  'Nearly  every  one  of  them.' 
'Do  you  wish  to  have  either  or  any  of  them  to  call  to 
see  you  to  converse  on  religious  topics?'  'No,  I 
thank  you,'  was  the  decided  answer." 

Among  America's  most  eminent  statesmen  none 
probably  ever  possessed  a  more  logical  mind  than 


820  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN: 

Lincoln.  Judge  Davis  says:  "His  mind  was  logical 
and  direct."  »Tames  G.  Blaine  says:  "His  logic  was 
severe  and  faultless."  George  S.  Boutwell  says: 
"He  takes  rank  with  the  first  logicians  and  orators 
of  every  age."  In  his  funeral  oration  at  Springfield, 
Bishop   Simpson  said; 

"If  you  ask  me  on  what  mental  characteristic  his 
greatness  rested,  I  answer,  on  a  quick  and  ready 
perception  of  facts ;  on  a  memory  unusually  tenacious 
and  retentive;  and  on  a  logical  turn  of  mind,  which 
followed  sternly  and  unwaveringly  every  link  in  the 
chain  of  thought  on  every  subject  he  was  called  to 
investigate." 

Lincoln  was  cnce  called  to  investigate  the  subject 
of  Christianity  He  "followed  sternh  and  unwaver- 
ingly every  liak  in  the  chain  of  thought"  suggested 
by  this  subject,  and  the  result  was  its  rejection  by 
him. 

If  he  was  subsequently  converted  to  Christianity, 
it  was  only  after  a  re-examination  and  a  thorough  anc 
exhaustive  investigation  of  its  claims.  This  his 
friends  positively  state  never  took  place,  and  the 
circumstances  associated  with  each  and  every  period 
assigned  for  his  reputed  conversion  confirm  their 
statements.  In  1848  he  was  a  member  of  Congress, 
his  mind  absorbed  with  the  novelties,  the  duties,  and 
the  aspirations  that  usually  attend  a  first  term  in 
this  important  capacity.     In  1858,  and  for  years  pre- 


WAS    HE    A   CHRISTIAN?  321 

ceding  and  following,  tlie  great  political  questions  of 
the  day  occupied  his  luiud.  lie  was  engaged  in  a 
mortal  struggle  with  one  of  the  most  powerful  intel- 
lectual athletes  of  his  time.  He  was  contending  with 
Douglas  for  a  prize,  and  that  prize  was  the  Presi 
dency.  He  must  be  ever  on  the  alert.  He  must 
crush  his  antagonist  or  his  antagonist  would  crush 
him.  Think  of  Lincoln  sitting  down  in  the  very 
crisis  of  this  conflict  and  engaging  in  the  study  of 
theology!  In  18G2,  and  1863,  the  other  years  as- 
signed for  his  conversion,  he  was  in  the  midst  of  the 
great  Rebellion,  all  his  thoughts  and  all  his  energies 
enlisted  in  the  mighty  task  of  saving  the  Union. 

That  Lincoln  was  a  Freethinker  in  Illinois,  that 
he  was  for  a  time  a  zealous  propagandist  of  his  faith, 
that  he  was  instrumental  in  making  unbelievers  of 
many  of  his  associates,  it  is  useless  to  deny.  If  he 
was  afterward  converted  to  Christianity,  his  friends 
were  ignorant  of  his  conversion.  He  failed  to  notify 
them  of  his  previous  mistake  and  warn  them  of  their 
impending  danger.  If  it  could  be  shown  that  he  re- 
nounced his  former  views  and  became  a  Christian, 
this  fact  would  be  one  of  the  most  damaging  argu- 
ments againsc  Christianity  that  could  be  advanced. 
As  a  Freethinker  he  was  one  of  the  most  tender  and 
humane  of  men,  ever  solicitous  for  the  welfare  of  his 
fellow-beings.  Did  Christianity  transform  him  into 
a    selfish,    heartless   being,    who    coolly  disregarded 


322  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN 

even  the  eternal  welfare  of  his  best  and  clearest 
friends?  Think  of  a  man  directing  a  friend  to  take 
a  road  which  he  afterwards  discovers  leads  to  certain 
death,  and  then  not  lifting  a  finger  of  warning  to  save 
him  from  destruction,  when  it  is  in  his  power  to  do 
so! 

The  Freethinker  will  require  no  other  evidence  to 
convince  "nim   that  Lincoln  died  a  disbeliever  than 
the  fact  that  he  once  fullv  investigated  this  subject 
and  proclaimed  himself  an  Infidel.     The  mere  skep- 
tic who  has  no  settled  convictions — who  has  never 
examined  the  evidences  against  historical  Christian- 
ity— may  become  a  sincere  believer  in  the  Christian 
religion.     The    confirmed    Freethinker    never    can, 
albeit  a   Thomas   Cooper,   a   Joseph   Barker   and   a 
George  Chainey  may  profess  to.     As  Col.   Thomas 
Wentworth  Higginson  happily  expresses  it:     "You 
may  take  the  robin's  egg  from  the  nest  in  yonder 
tree,  and  so  near  is  the  bird  to  being  hatched  you 
may  crack  it  with  the  edge  of  your  nail,  and  the  bird 
is  free.     But  all  your  power,  and  all  your  patient 
fidelity,  and  all  the  mucilage  and  sticking  plaster  you 
can  put  on  it,  will  never  get  that  birdling  back  into 
that  little  egg  again.     So  complete  is  the  sense  of 
satisfaction,  soch  is  the  feeling  of  freedom,  which 
comes  from  once  finding  yourself,  not  merely  out  of 
these  little  sectarian  names,  but  out  of  the  name  of 
the  laro-er  and  grander  sect,  which  is  Christianity, 


WAS    HE    A    CHRISTIAN?  328 

that  you  will  find  when  the  egg  Ih  once  brokeu,  the 
bird  is  free  forever." 

From  the  church  steward's  standpoint,  there  is 
nothing  so  desirable  as  the  early  conversion  of  one 
who  is  destined  to  become  rich.  From  the  evangel- 
ist's point  of  view,  there  is  nothing  like  the  death- 
bed repentance  of  one  who  has  become  great.  Had 
the  bullet  of  the  assassin  not  immediately  destroyed 
consciousness,  all  these  stories  that  we  have  heard 
about  Lincoln's  conversion — the  Edwards  story,  the 
Smith  story,  the  Brooks  story,  the  Willets  story,  the 
Vinton  story,  and  the  story  of  the  Illinois  clergyman 
— would  never  have  been  invented.  Instead  of  these 
we  would  have  the  story  of  some  domestic,  or  some 
intruding  priest  who  saw  him  during  his  dying 
hours.  Aaron  Burr  was  kinder  to  the  church  than 
John  Wilkes  Booth. 

But  whatever  the  religious  opinions  of  Lincoln 
were  when  he  died,  whether  he  had  changed  his  be- 
lief or  not,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  he  never  thought 
enough  of  the  church  to  unite  with  it,  the  frantic 
efforts  of  cbrgymen  and  church-members  to  claim 
him  seem  quite  uncalled  for,  if  not  ridiculous. 

The  opinion  of  a  writer  previously  quoted  in  this 
work,  is  that  the  bitter  war  waged  against  the  per- 
sons who  have  declared  that  Lincoln  was  not  a 
Christian  arises,  not  from  a  belief  that  they  have 
stated  what  is  false,  but  from  a  consciousness  that 


324  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN 

they  have  "demolished  an  empty  shrine  that  was 
profitable  to  many,  and  broken  a  painted  idol  that 
might  have  served  for  a  god."  It  is  strange  how 
Christians  tend  toward  fetichism.  Not  satisfied  with 
three  Gods,  they  must  canonize  and  deify  men  and 
make  saints  and  demi-gods.  They  have  already 
deified  three  Americans — Washington,  Grant,  and 
Lincoln — and  what  is  remarkable,  in  each  instance 
they  have  selected  an  unbeliever — an  Infidel.  It  is 
said  that  men  have  stolen  the  livery  of  heaven  in 
which  to  serve  the  devil;  but  it  seems  hardly  con- 
sistent with  ibe  pretensions  of  the  church  that  she 
shoula  be  compelled  to  appropriate  the  beadroll  of 
Infidelity  in  order  to  make  her  appear  respectable. 

Lincoln's  spt-eches  and  state  papers  contain  many 
allusions  to  Deity.  As  Colonel  Lamon  observes, 
"These  were  easy,  and  not  inconsistent  with  his  re- 
ligious notions."  But  it  is  a  mistake  to  atribute  all 
the  Deistic  expressions  that  appear  in  his  state 
papers  to  him.  Just  how  much  of  this  was  the  work 
of  his  private  secretaries,  how  much  of  it  was 
"Seward's  nonsense,"  or  how  much  of  it  was 
suggested  by  Chase  or  other  Cabinet  ministers,  can 
never  be  determined.  It  is  significant,  however, 
that  in  those  documents  of  least  importance,  those 
which  he  would  most  likely  leave  to  his  secretaries 
or  other  officials  to  draft,  these  expressions  are 
chiefly  to  be  found.     In  his  debates  with  Douglas, 


WAS    HE    A   CHRISTIAN?  825 

and  his  other  great  political  speeches  delivered  in 
Illinois,  he  seldom  refers  to  Deity.  In  his  carefully 
prepared  Cooper  Institute  address,  that  model  of 
political  addresses,  the  name  of  Deity  does  not  once 
occur.  In  his  First  Inaugural  Address,  he  refers  to 
God,  and  makes  a  complimentary  reference  to  Chris- 
tianity intended  to  conciliate  the  church  and  gain  for 
his  administration  its  support  in  the  coming  struggle 
with  the  South.  One  paragraph  of  the  second  In- 
augural contains  allusions  to  Deity  and  quotations 
from  the  Bible;  but  in  this  address  he  makes  no 
recognition  of  Christ  or  Christianity.  Even  his 
quotations  from  the  Bible  are  made  in  a  guarded 
manner  which  clearly  indicates  that  he  did  not  be- 
lieve in  its  divinity.  In  the  Preliminary  Proclama- 
tion of  Emancipation,  w^hich  was  drafted  by  himself, 
the  name  of  Deity  does  not  appear.  In  the  final 
Proclamation,  an  acknowledgment  of  God  was  in- 
serted only  at  the  urgent  request  of  Secretary  Chase. 
The  Emancipation  Proclamation,  with  the  possible 
exception  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  is  the  most 
important  political  document  ever  issued  in 
America.  He  knew  that  this  was  the  crowning  act 
of  his  career,  that  it  would  place  him  among  the  im- 
mortals. In  the  preparation  of  this  work  he  ex- 
pended much  thought  and  labor,  and  it  was  his  desire 
that  it  should  be  free  from  religious  verbiage.     In 


326  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN! 

that  masterpiece  of  eloquence,  the  Gettysburg 
oration,  the  name  of  God  occurs  but  once,  while  not 
the  remotest  reference  to  Christianity  or  even  im- 
mortality appears.  When  we  take  into  consideration 
the  fact  that  this  address  was  made  at  the  dedication 
of  a  cemetery,  the  significance  of  this'  omission  can 
not  be  overlooked.  This  speech  was  the  product  of 
Lincoln's  own  mind  free  from  the  suggestions  and 
emendations  of  others,  and  the  occasion  was  too 
sacred  to  indulge  in  pious  cant  in  which  he  did  not 
believe. 

The  clergy  parade  Lincoln's  recognitions  of  a 
Supreme  Being  as  a  triumphant  refutation  of  the 
claim  that  he  was  an  Infidel.  Yet,  at  the  same  time, 
they  do  not  hesitate  to  denounce  as  Infidels,  Paine 
and  Voltaire,  when  they  know,  or  ought  to  know, 
that  two  more  profound  and  reverential  believers  in 
God  never  lived  and  wrote  than  Paine  and  Voltaire. 

If  Infidelity  and  Atheism  were  synonymous  terms 
it  would  be  difficult  to  maintain  that  Lincoln,  dur- 
ing the  last  years  of  his  life  at  least,  was  an  Infidel. 
But  Infidelity  and  Atheism  are  not  synonymous 
terms.  An  Atheist  is  an  Infidel,  but  an  Infidel  is 
not  necessarily  an  Atheist.  A  Presbyterian  is  a 
Christian,  but  all  Christians  are  not  Presbyterians. 
Christians  themselves  coined  the  word  Infidel,  and 
they  have  used  it  to  denote  a  disbeliever  in  Chris- 
tianity.    A  disbelief  or  denial  of  Christianity  is  not 


WAS   HE  A   CHRISTIAN?  327 

necessarily  a  denical  of  God.  Christians,  many  of 
tliem,  regard  tbo  term  as  odious  and  as  carrying 
with  it  the  idea  of  immorality,  notwithstanding  the 
most  intelligent  and  the  most  highly  moral  class  in 
Christendom  are  these  so-called  Infidels.  "  Who  are 
to-day's  Infidels  ?"  says  the  Rev.  William  Chauning 
Gannett.  He  answers :  "  Very  many  of  the  bright- 
est minds,  the  warmest  hearts,  the  most  loyal  con- 
sciences, the  most  zealous  seekers  after  God,  the 
most  honest  tellers  of  what  they  find— yes,  and  the 
most  successful  finders.  Infidels  to  what  are  they? 
Not  to  morality  :  Infidels  to  morality  are  too  wise  to 
train  with  them." 

It  is  not  claimed  that  Lincoln  was  wholly  free 
from  a  belief  in  the  supernatural.  He  possessed  in 
some  respects  a  simple,  childlike  nature,  and  carried 
with  him  through  life  some  of  the  superstitions  of 
childhood.  But  the  dogmas  of  Christianity  were 
not  among  them;  these  he  had  examined  and  dis- 
carded. 

As  a  proof  of  Lincoln's  regard  for  Christian  insti- 
tutions, great  prominence  is  given  to  his  proclama- 
tion to  the  army  enjoining  the  observance  of  the 
Sabbath.  This  document  gives  expression  to  senti- 
ments regarding  the  sanctity  of  the  Christian  Sab- 
bath that  Lincoln  personally  did  not  entertain.  It 
was  issued  to  appease  the  clamor  of  the  clergy  who 
demanded  it,  and  was  drafted,  not  by  Lincoln,  but 


328  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  : 

by  some  pious  Sabbatarian.  Lincoln  himself  at- 
tached no  more  sanctity  to  Sunday  than  to  other 
days.  He  worked  on  Sunday  himself.  In  Spring- 
field his  Sundays  were  frequently  spent  in  preparing 
cases  for  court.  In  company  with  his  boys  he  often 
passed  the  entire  day  making  excursions  into  the 
country  or  rambling  through  the  woods  that  skirted 
the  Sangamon.  He  seldom  went  to  church  either 
in  Springfield  or  Washington,  the  claims  of  some  of 
his  Christian  biographers  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing. Previous  to  his  nomination,  in  1860,  we 
find  him  sitting  for  a  bust  on  Sunday  in  preference 
to  attending  church.  On  the  Sunday  immediately 
following  his  nomination  an  artist  was  busy  with  him 
molding  his  hands  and  taking  negatives  for  a  statue. 
The  draft  of  the  preliminary  Proclamation  of 
Emancipation  was  finished  on  Sunday.  The  last 
Sunday  of  his  life  was  spent,  not  in  studying  the 
Scriptures,  but  in  reading  his  beloved  Shakespere. 

It  was  stated  by  friends  of  Lincoln  that  he  gener- 
ally refrained  from  giving  publicity  to  his  religious 
opinions  while  in  public  life  because  of  their  unpop- 
ularity. In  answer  to  this  the  Christian  claimant 
retorts  :  "  If  this  be  true  then  he  was  a  hypocrite." 
But  let  us  be  honest.  Nearly  every  person  enter- 
tains opinions  which  he  does  not  deem  it  discreet  or 
necessary  to  make  public.  You,  my  Christian  friend, 
entertain  doubts  and  heresies  concerning  your  creed 


WAS   HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  329 

which  you  keep  a  secret  or  disclose  only  to  your 
most  intimate  associates.  If  you,  in  private  life,  and 
not  dependent  upon  the  public,  hide  your  unpopular 
thoughts  from  tlie  world,  can  you  consistently  blame 
Lincoln  for  his  silence  when  the  fate  of  a  nation 
depended  upon  him  and  the  alienation  even  of  a  few 
bigots  might  turn  the  scales  against  him  ?  A  Chris- 
tian general  does  not  hesitate  to  deceive  the  enemy 
or  withhold  his  plans  even  from  his  own  soldiers. 
Again,  the  clergy  are  forever  advising  and  entreating 
men  not  to  publish  their  doubts  and  heresies.  Is  it 
consistent  in  them  to  condemn  a  man  for  following 
their  advice  ? 

The  church  should  learn  to  respect  honesty  her- 
self before  she  charges  others  with  dishonesty.  It 
is  the  shame  of  Christianity  that  men  have  been 
obliged  to  conceal  their  honest  convictions  in  order 
to  escape  ostracism  and  persecution.  When  the 
church  herself  becomes  honest  enough  to  tolerate 
and  respect  the  honest  opinions  of  those  who  cannot 
conscientiously  accept  her  creed,  then  will  it  be  time 
for  her  to  charge  Lincoln  with  hypocrisy  for  having 
partially  withheld  his  unpopular  views  from  religious 
rufl&ans.  It  does  not  evince  a  want  of  honesty,  nor 
even  a  lack  of  moral  courage,  to  flee  from  a  tiger  or 
avoid  a  skunk. 

To  do  good  was  Lincoln's  religion.     To   live  an 
honest,  manly  life — to  add  to  the   sum   of   human 


330  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

happiness— to  make  the  world  better  for  his  having 
liyed — this  was  the  aspiration  of  his  life  and  the 
essence  of  his  faith. 

In  youth,  the  meanest  creature  found  in  him  a 
friend,  and  if  need  be,  a  defender.  He  wrote  essays 
and  made  speeches  against  cruelty  to  animals,  and 
sought  to  impress  upon  his  playmates'  minds  the 
sacredness  of  life.  The  same  tender  regard  for  the 
weak  and  unfortunate  characterized  his  manhood. 
Whilst  riding  through  a  forest  once  with  a  party  of 
friends,  he  saw  a  brood  of  young  birds  on  the  ground 
which  a  storm  had  blown  from  their  nest.  He  dis- 
mounted from  his  horse,  and  after  a  laborious 
search,  found  the  nest  and  placed  the  birdlings 
snugly  in  their  little  home.  When  he  reached  his 
companions,  and  was  chided  by  them  for  his  delay, 
he  said :  "  I  could  not  have  slept  to-night  if  I  had 
not  given  those  birds  to  their  mother." 

The  narration  of  his  many  deeds  of  kindness  and 
mercy  while  at  Washington  would  fill  a  volume.  He 
loved  to  rescue  an  erring  soldier  boy  from  the  jaws 
of  death  and  fill  a  mother's  eyes  with  tears  of  joy. 
He  loved  to  dispel  the  clouds  of  sorrow  from  a  wife's 
sad  heart  and  warm  it  with  the  sunshine  of  happi- 
ness. He  loved  to  take  the  child  of  poverty  upon 
his  knee  and  plant  within  its  little  breast  the  seeds 
of  confidence  and  hope. 

A  giant  in  staturq*  And  a  lion  in  strength  and 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  381 

conrage,  he  possessed  the  gentleness  of  a  child  and 
the  tenderness  of  a  woman.  The  sufferings,  even  of 
a  stranger,  would  fill  his  eyes  with  tears,  and  the 
death  of  a  friend  would  overwhelm  him.  In  his 
tenth  year  his  mother  died,  and  for  a  time  his  heart 
was  desolate  and  he  could  not  be  consoled.  In  his 
fifteenth  year  his  only  sister,  a  lovely,  fragile  flower, 
iust  blooming  into  womanhood,  drooped  and  died, 
and  life  seemed  purposeless  to  him  again.  Of  his 
four  children,  two  died  while  he  was  living — Eddie, 
a  fair-haired  babe,  and  his  beloved  Willie.  When 
death  took  these  his  sorrow  was  unutterable.  The 
untimely  death  of  his  young  friend,  the  gallant  Colo- 
nel Ellsworth,  at  Alexandria,  and  the  death  of  his 
life-long  friend,  the  lamented  Edwin  F.  Baker,  at 
Ball's  Bluff,  were  blows  that  staggered  him.  At  the 
death  of  his  good  friend,  Bowlin  Green,  he  was 
chosen  to  deliver  a  funeral  address.  When  the  hour 
arrived,  and  he  stepped  forward  to  perform  the 
sacred  task,  his  eyes  fell  upon  the  coffin  of  his  dead 
friend  and  for  a  time  he  stood  transfixed — helpless 
and  speechless.  The  only  tribute  he  could  pay  was 
the  tribute  of  his  tears.  When  he  turned  for  the 
last  time  from  the  bedside  of  the  beautiful  Ann  Rut- 
ledge,  his  betrothed,  it  was  with  a  broken  heart  and 
a  mind  dethroned.  "  Oh  !  I  can  never  be  reconciled 
to  have  the  snow,  the  rain,  and  the  storm  beat  upon 
her  grave,"  was  the  pitiful  burden  of  his  plaint  for 


332  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

weeks.  Reason  after  a  time  returned,  but  his  wonted 
gladness  never ;  and  down  through  all  those  event- 
ful years  to  that  fatal  April  night  when  his  own 
sweet  life-blood  slowly  oozed  away,  beneath  that 
sparkling  surface  of  feigned  mirth,  drifted  the  mem- 
ory and  the  agonies  of  that  great  grief. 

In  the  social  relations  of  life,  he  was  a  most  exem- 
plary man.     He  was  a  devoted  husband,  an  indulgent 
father,  an  obliging  neighbor,  and  a  faithful  friend. 
Mrs.  Colonel  Chapman,  a  lady  who  lived  for  a  time 
in  his  family,  pays  this  tribute  to  his  private  life  : 
"  He  was  all  that  a  husband,  father,  and  neighbor 
should  be,  kind  and  affectionate  to  his  wife  and  child, 
and  very  pleasant  to  all  around  him.     Never  did  I 
hear  him  utter  an  unkind  word."     "  His  devotion  to 
wife  and  children,"  says  George  W.  Julian,  "  was  as 
abiding  and  unbounded  as  his    love    of   country." 
The  strong  attachment  always  manifested  by  him 
for  his  friends  has  often  been  remarked.     Rich  and 
poor,  great  and  humble,  all  were  equally  dear  to  him 
and  alike  the  recipients  of  his  regard  and  love.     The 
prince  he  treated  like  a  man,  the  humblest  man  he 
treated  like  a  prince.     Nothing  in  his  career  exhibits 
the  greatness  and  nobleness  of  his  character  in  a 
loftier  degree  than  the  cordial  and  unaffected  manner 
in  which,  at  Washington,  in  the  midst  of  wealth,  and 
splendor,  and   refinement,   he   was   accustomed  to 


WA3    HE   A   CHRISTIAN?  833 

receive  and  entertain  the  plain,  uncultured  friends  of 
other  days. 

Upon  his  rugged  honesty,  I  need  not  dwell.  The 
sobriquet  of  "  Honest  Abe  "  was  early  won  by  him 
and  never  lost.  In  his  profession — a  profession  in 
which,  too  often,  cunning  and  deceit,  falsehood  and 
dishonesty,  are  the  means,  and  robbery  the  end — a 
profession  in  which,  too  often.  Injustice  is  a  purpled 
Dives  sitting  at  a  bounteous  board,  and  Justice,  a 
ragged  Lazarus  lying  at  the  gate — he  never  wavered 
in  his  loyalty  to  truth,  to  justice,  and  to  honesty. 
Engaged  in  a  just  cause,  he  was  one  of  the  most 
powerful  advocates  that  ever  addressed  a  judge  or 
jury  ;  engaged  in  an  unjust  cause,  he  was  the  weakest 
member  of  his  bar.  In  fact,  he  could  not  be  in- 
duced to  plead  a  cause  in  which  he  did  not  see  some 
element  of  justice,  even  though  the  technicalities  of 
law  insured  success.  To  one  who  had  sought  his 
services  and  had  stated  his  case,  he  replied  :  "  Yes, 
I  can  win  it ;  but  there  are  some  things  legally  right 
that  are  not  morally  right ;  this  is  one :  I  cannot 
take  your  case."  He  was  once  employed  to  defend 
a  person  accused  of  murder.  As  the  trial  pro- 
gressed, it  became  apparent  to  him  that  his  client 
nad  done  the  deed.  Turning  to  his  associate 
counsel,  with  a  look  of  disappointment  and  pain,  he 
aaid  :  "  Swett,  the  man  is  guilty  ;  you  defend  him  ;  I 
cannot"     On  another  occasion,  when  he  discovered 


334  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN: 

that  his  client  had  grossly  imposed  upon  his  con- 
fidence and  instituted  an  unjust  suit,  he  left  thb 
court-room,  and  when  the  bailiif  called  for  him,  he 
answered  :  "  Tell  Judge  Treat  that  I  can't  come ;  1 
have  to  wash  my  hands.** 

He  was  the  most  magnanimous  of  men.  William 
H.  Seward,  his  chief  opponent  for  the  Presidential 
nomination,  he  made  the  Premier  of  his  Cabinet. 
Secretary  Chase  became  his  political,  if  not  his  per- 
sonal, enemy.  Yet,  recognizing  his  fitness  for  the 
place,  he  waived  all  personal  grievances  and  ap- 
pointed him  to  the  exalted  position  of  Chief  Justice 
of  the  United  Staces,  the  highest  gift  within  the 
power  of  a  President  to  bestow.  During  his  profes- 
sional career  he  was  sent  to  Cincinnati  to  assist 
Edwin  M.  Stanton  in  an  important  legal  case.  The 
grim  Stanton  had  never  met  this  plain,  "Western 
lawyer  before,  and  displeased  at  his  uncouth  appear- 
ance, and  apparent  lack  of  ability,  treated  him  so 
discourteously  that  Lincoln's  self-respect  compelled 
him  to  practically  withdraw  from  the  case.  It  was 
a  brutal  affront,  too  poignant  for  him  ever  to  forget, 
but  not  to  forgive,  and  linked  together  on  one  of  the 
most  momentous  pages  of  history  stand  the  names 
of  Lincoln  and  Stanton,  an  enduring  witness  to  his 
sublime  magnanimity. 

The  murder  of  this  loving  savior  of  our  Union  was 
a  disastrous  blow,  not  to  the  victorious  North  alone, 


WAS  HE  A  CHRISTIAN?  335 

but  to  the  vanquished  South  as  well.  Could  he  have 
lived,  the  balm  of  his  great,  kindly  nature  would  have 
quickly  healed  the  nation's  wounds.  At  the  com- 
mencement of  the  conflict,  in  pleading  tones,  he  said  : 
"We  are  not  enemies,  but  friends."  And  at  its 
close,  notwithstanding  all  the  cruel,  bitter  anguish 
he  had  endured  during  those  four  long  years  of 
fratricidal  strife,  "  With  malice  toward  none,  with 
charity  for  all,"  he  died,  and  many  a  brave  Confed- 
erate deplored 

The  deep  damnation  of  his  taking  off. 
When  Stonewall  Jackson  died,  he  paid  a  touching 
tribute  to  his  gallantry,  and  said  :  "  Let  us  forget 
his  errors  over  his  fresh-made  grave,"  In  the  dark- 
ness of  night,  on  a  bloody  field  of  the  Peninsula,  he 
bent  beside  the  prostrate  form  of  a  dying  soldier  of 
the  South,  and  while  the  hot  tears  rolled  down  his 
furrowed  cheeks,  soothed  him  with  words  of  tender- 
est  sympathy,  and,  by  the  dim  rays  of  a  lantern,  took 
down  from  his  lips  a  message  to  his  mother,  and 
sent  it  by  a  flag  of  truce  into  the  enemies'  lines  to  be 
transmitted  to  his  home. 

Glorious  apostle  of  humanity !  When  shall  we 
look  upon  his  like  again  ?  so  honest,  so  truthful,  so 
just,  so  charitable,  so  loving,  so  merciful  i  Law 
was  his  God,  justice  his  creed,  and  liberty  his 
heaven.  If  he  sinned,  mercy  prompted  him.  Li 
the  presence  of  such  a  man,  and  in  the  presence  of 


336  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN! 

such  a  religion,  how  contemptible  your  puny  theo- 
logians and  their  narrow  creeds  appear !  Born 
in  the  cabin  of  a  Western  wild,  dying  in  a  na- 
tion's capital,  its  honored  chief,  enshrined  in  tK*^ 
hearts  of  an  admiring  world,  Abraham  Lincoln  stands 
to-day  the  gentlest,  purest,  noblest  character  in  hu- 
man history.  Millenniums  may  pass  away,  unnum- 
bered generations  come  and  go,  creeds  rise  and 
fall;  but  the  divine  faith  of  Freedom's  martyr — & 
faith  based  upon  immutable  law,  eternal  justice,  uni- 
versal liberty — a  faith  formulated  not  in  perishable 
words,  but  in  immortal  deeds,  will  live  through  all 
the  years  to  come,  a  torch  of  hope  to  every  son  of 
toUv 


ULYSSES   S.    GRANT 


ULYSSES  S.  GRANT 


THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES 
S.  GRANT. 

In  the  preceding  pages  of  the  Fathers  and 
Saviors  of  our  Republic  I  have  shown  that  Paine, 
Jefferson,  Washington,  Franklin  and  Lincoln 
were  Freethinkers.  In  the  following  pages  of 
this  work  I  shall  present  some  of  the  evidences  of 
Grant's  unbelief. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  J.  P.  Newman  (during  the  last 
years  of  his  life  a  Methodist  bishop),  whose  church 
General  Grant  with  his  wife  had  attended,  and 
who  was  with  Grant  during  his  last  illness,  gave 
to  the  public  a  statement  of  his  religious  opin- 
ions, the  most  important  of  which  are  the  follow- 
ing: 

"Reared  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  and 
baptized  in  his  last  illness  by  one  of  her  ministers, 
his  religious  nature  was  sincere,  calm,  and  stead- 
fast." 

"His  calm  faith  in  a  future  state  was  undis- 
turbed by  anxious  doubt." 

"He  said  to  me,  'I  believe  in  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures.* " 

'  841 


342      THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT. 

"His  faithful  attendance  at  churcli  was  largely 
inspired  bv  his  respect  for  the  Sabbath  day." 

"It  was  his  custom  and  habit  to  call  to  prayers." 

These  claims  have  been  given  wide  publicity, 
and  are  generally  accepted  as  a  truthful  presen- 
tation of  General  Grant's  religious  views.  Yet 
those  who  were  intimately  acquainted  with  him, 
those  to  whom  he  had  confided  his  religious  opin- 
ions, know  that  they  are  either  wholly  or  in  part 
untrue  and  intended  to  deceive. 

"Keared  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and 
baptized  in  his  last  illnesa  by  one  of  her  minis- 
ters," etc. 

These  words  were  designed  to  convey  the  im- 
pression that  Grant  was  a  member  of  the  Metho- 
dist Church.  All  the  truth  there  is  in  this  state- 
ment is  that  Grant's  mother  was  a  Methodist,  and 
when  it  was  supposed  that  he  was  dying,  a  Metho- 
dist minister,  without  his  solicitation,  sprinkled 
him  with  a  few  drops  of  water. 

But  it  requires  something  more  than  this  to  be 
a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church.  It  requires 
the  religious  experience  known  as  a  change  of 
heart.  It  is  not  pretended  that  Grant  ever  ex- 
perienced this  change.  It  requires  the  partaking 
of  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  Grant 
never  communed,  not  even  on  his  death-bed.  It 
requires  the  sacrament  of  Baptism.    The  fact  that 


THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.      343 

Newman  performed  this  ceremony  when  he  did 
shows  that  it  had  never  been  performed  before — 
that  Grant  had  never  been  baptized. 

Grant's  biographers,  for  the  most  part,  make  no 
mention  of  this  baptizing  incident;  Newman's 
friends  were  ashamed  of  it,  the  secular  press  ridi- 
culed it,  and  many  of  the  religious  papers  con- 
demned it.  Had  this  baptism  been  genuine  in- 
stead of  the  farcical  mummery  that  it  was;  had  it 
been  performed  with  the  knowledge  and  consent 
of  Grant,  he  would  have  allied  himself  with  the 
church  Yet,  although  he  survived  three  months, 
he  refused  to  be  taken  into  the  church,  and  died, 
as  he  had  always  lived,  outside  of  it. 

The  Rev.  H.  C.  Meyers  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church,  a  man  of  broad  and  liberal  view^s,  dep- 
recating and  protesting  against  the  narrowness 
of  the  Orthodox  creed,  writes: 

"Men  are  not  all  on  their  way  to  the  bottom- 
less pit  who  refuse  to  bow  to  the  creeds  composed 
by  a  few  claimers  ol  infallibility.  Is  Abraham 
Lincoln  in  the  bottomless  pit?  Where  are  the 
greatest  men  this  nation  ever  saw?  Was  Gener- 
al Grant  ever  on  the  record  of  the  Methodist 
Church?" 

Rev.  J.  L.  Cram,  chaplain  of  Grant's  regiment, 
says: 

"Grant  belonged  to  no  church." 


344      THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT. 

Grant  was  not  a  Methodist,  he  was  not  a  church 
member,  he  was  not  a  Christian. 

"His  calm  faith  in  a  future  state  was  undis- 
turbed by  anxious  doubt." 

It  was  claimed  by  Grant's  intimate  friends, 
General  Sherman,  Senator  Chaffee,  and  others, 
that  he  was  not  a  positive  believer  in  immortality, 
but  simply  an  Agnostic  who  hoped  for  immor- 
tality. 

In  his  posthumous  letter  to  his  wife,  written 
two  weeks  before  his  death,  he  expresses  a  hope, 
if  not  a  belief,  in  a  future  life.  The  letter  reads  as 
follows: 

"Look  after  our  dear  children  and  direct  them 
in  the  paths  of  rectitude.  It  would  distress  me 
far  more  to  think  that  one  of  them  could  depart 
from  an  honorable,  upright,  and  virtuous  life  than 
it  would  to  know  that  they  were  prostrated  on  a 
bed  of  sickness  from  which  they  were  never  to 
arise  alive.  They  have  never  given  us  any  cause 
for  alarm  on  this  account,  and  I  trust  they  never 
will.  With  these  few  injunctions  and  the  knowl- 
edge I  have  of  your  love  and  affection,  and  the 
dutiful  affection  of  all  our  children,  I  bid  you  a 
final  farewell,  until  we  meet  in  another  and,  I 
trust,  better  world.  You  will  find  this  on  my  per- 
son after  my  demise." 

Lincoln;  in  a  letter  of  consolation  to  his  dying 


THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.      345 

father,  expresses  a  sentiment  regarding  a  future 
existence  almost  identical  with  that  expressed  by 
Grant  in  his  parting  words  to  his  wife.  And  yet 
Lincoln  was  an  Agnostic  in  regard  to  immortality. 
The  Agnostic  professes  to  have  no  knowledge  of  a 
future  existence.  He  may  be  a  believer  or  a  dis- 
believer in  it,  or  he  may  be  neither.  Probably  a 
majority  of  Agnostics  hope  for  immortality.  To 
be  separated  forever  from  those  we  love  is  the  sad- 
dest thought  that  ever  occupied  the  mind  of  man. 
When  brought  face  to  face  with  this  terrible  pos- 
sibility, the  desire  to  meet  again  is  intensified; 
this  strengthens  hope,  belief  asserts  itself,  and  in 
the  moments  of  its  ascendancy  the  Agnostic  may 
exclaim,  "We  shall  m  et  again!" 

Even  if  Dr.  Newman's  statement  be  true,  it  does 
not  prove  that  Grant  was  a  Christian.  The  same 
may  be  said  of  Thomas  Paine.  '^His  calm  faith 
in  a  future  state  was  undisturbed  by  anxious 
doubt."  He  says:  "I  trouble  not  myself  about 
the  manner  of  future  existence.  I  content  myself 
with  believing,  even  to  positive  conviction,  that 
the  power  that  gave  me  existence  is  able  to  con- 
tinue it  in  any  form  and  manner  he  pleases"  (Age 
of  Reason,  p.  71). 

"I  believe  in  the  Holy  Scriptures." 

Dr.  Newman  would  have  us  accept  this  as  a 
profession  of  belief  in  the  Bible  as  the  divinely  in- 


346      THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT. 

spired  word  of  God.  Yet  ho  and  every  other 
friend  of  Grant  knew  that  he  did  not  believe  the 
Bible  to  be  such  a  book.  If  General  Grant  ut- 
tered these  words  he  qualified  them  at  the  time. 
He  could  have  expressed  his  belief  in  a  hundred 
books  without  acknowledging  them  to  be  divine 
or  infallible. 

Grant,  if  correctly  reported,  had  on  other  occa- 
sions expressed  a  certain  admiration  for  the 
Bible.  But  never  did  he  express  the  belief  that  it 
was  in  the  evangelical  sense  the  word  of  God. 

Colonel  Ingersoll  says:  "Grant  was  not  a  be- 
liever in  Christianity  as  a  revealed  religion,  and 
none  of  his  language  applying  to  the  point  goes 
further  than  to  mean  that  he  accepted  the  moral 
teachings  of  Christ  and  the  Bible  as  beneficial  to 
mankind." 

"His  faithful  attendance  at  church  was  largely 
inspired  by  his  respect  for  the  Sabbath  day." 

"His  faithful  attendance  at  church"  was  not 
"inspired  by  his  respect  for  the  Sabbath  day," 
but  chiefly,  if  not  wholly,  by  the  respect  he  had 
for  the  feelings  and  wishes  of  his  wife,  who  was  a 
church  member. 

In  regard  to  the  alleged  piety  of  the  six  men 
whose  religious  opinions  we  are  considering,  the 
claims  made  with  the  greatest  assurance  by  the 
clergy  and  accepted  with  the  greatest  confidence 


THE  RELIGIOUS  OriNIOXS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.      347 

by  the  people,  are  those  pertaining  to  Washing- 
ton, Lincoln,  and  Grant. 

While  it  is  claimed  that  Paine  died  confessing 
Christ,  it  is  admitted  that  he  lived  an  Infidel,  and 
there  is  a  vague  suspicion  in  the  minds  of  many 
that  Jefferson  and  Franklin  were  not  strictly  or- 
thodox. And  yet  Washington,  Lincoln  and  Grant 
were  certainly  as  unorthodox  as  Paine,  Jefferson, 
and  Franklin.  The  reason  the  former  have  been 
considered  the  more  pious  is  because  they  attend- 
ed church  and  contributed  to  its  support;  and  the 
reason  they  did  this  was  because  their  wives  were 
church  members.  Mrs.  Washington  was  an  Epis- 
copalian, Mrs.  Lincoln  was  a  Presbyterian,  and 
Mrs.  Grant  a  Methodist.  As  dutiful  husbands 
they  accompanied  their  wives  to  church  and  paid 
their  church  dues.  Paine,  Jefferson  and  Frank- 
lin, being  free  to  follow  their  own  inclinations, 
abstained  from  church  going.  Lincoln  certainly, 
and  Washington  and  Grant  probably,  would 
have  done  the  same  thing  under  similar  circum- 
stances. 

If  a  noted  man  is  accustomed  to  attend  a  cer- 
tain church,  this,  with  many  biographers  and 
newspaper  writers,  is  considered  a  valid  pretext 
for  setting  him  down  as  a  member  of  that  church. 
The  pulpit,  with  the  well  meant  aid  of  the  secular 
press,  continues  to  keep  before  the  public  a  state- 


348      THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT. 

ment  purporting  to  give  the  charcli  membership 
of  the  Presidents  of  the  United  States.  All,  with 
an  occasional  exception  of  Jefferson,  are  repre- 
sented as  members  of  various  orthodox  churches. 
And  yet,  prior  to  1S80,  no  church  member  had  ever 
been  elected  to  this  office. 

It  has  been  asserted  that  Grant  was  such  a 
zealous  advocate  of  Sabbath  observance  that  he 
would  not,  while  President,  allow  his  horses  to  be 
hitched  up  on  Sunday — that  the  family  walked  to 
church.  This  is  contradicted  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Burr, 
of  Washington,  who  states  that  he  frequently 
saw  the  President  and  his  family  in  their  car- 
riage on  Sunday. 

It  has  also  been  asserted  that  "he  would  not 
allow  his  servants  to  work  on  that  day."  The 
truth  is  he  did  not  require  his  servants  to  work  on 
Sunday,  aside  from  the  necessary  duties  of  the 
day.  Out  of  consideration  for  their  happiness  he 
allowed  them,  as  far  as  possible,  to  devote  the  day 
to  rest  and  pleasure.  He  respected  the  Sabbath, 
not  because  he  believed  there  was  any  sanctity 
attached  to  it,  but  because  he  believed  in  a  day  of 
rest. 

During  the  war  Grant  was  not  a  stickler  for 
Sabbath  observance.  When  the  army  was  in 
camp  the  customary  regulations  regarding  Sun- 
day were  observed;  when  engaged  in  active  oper- 


THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.      349 

ations  he  paid  no  more  respect  to  it  than  to  any 
Other  day.  During  the  hist  year  of  his  presiden- 
tial administration  he  visited  the  Centennial  Ex- 
position on  Sunday,  and  this  fact  shows  that 
these  stories  are  false. 

"It  was  his  custom  and  habit  to  call  to  prayers." 

General  Grant  did  not  believe  in  the  efficacy  of 
prayer.  Newman  prayed,  but  it  was  not  because 
the  sick  man  desired  his  prayers.  Newman  was 
his  wife's  pastor;  she  believed  in  prayer,  and  so 
he  was  allowed  to  pray. 

Ex-Senator  Chaffee  of  Colorado,  whose  daugh- 
ter was  married  to  one  of  General  Grant's  sons, 
and  who  was  with  Grant  during  his  illness,  says: 

''There  has  been  a  good  deal  of  nonsense  in  the 
papers  about  Dr.  Newman's  visits.  General  Grant 
does  not  believe  that  Dr.  Newman's  prayers  will 
save  him.  He  allows  the  doctor  to  pray  simply 
because  he  does  not  want  to  hurt  his  feelings. 
He  is  indifferent  on  his  own  account  to  every- 
thing." 

Another,  writing  at  the  time  of  General  Grant's 

death,  said: 

"His  acceptance  of  the  effusive  and  offensive 
ministrations  of  the  peripatetic  preacher  was 
probably  due  as  much  to  his  regard  for  the  feel- 
ings of  his  family  and  his  tolerance  of  his  minis- 
terial friend  as  to  any  faith  in  religion.    All  that 


350      THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT. 

the  press  can  gather  now  about  his  religious  be- 
lief is  filtered  through  Dr.  Newman,  and  must, 
therefore,  largely  be  discounted.  .  .  .  As  to  his 
regard  for  the  Sabbath  and  his  love  of  prayer,  Dr. 
Newman  has  overdone  the  matter.  His  an- 
ecdotes to  show  the  General's  piety  bear  very 
strong  internal  evidence  that  they  originated 
with  himself." 

There  is  one  thing  that  Newman  does  not  claim, 
and  that  is  that  Grant  acknowledged  Christ  to  be 
the  Son  of  God.  Had  Grant  accepted  Christ  he 
would  have  avowed  it,  and  this  is  the  claim  above 
all  other  claims  that  Newman  would  have  made  if 
true.  Grant  did  not  acknowledge  Jesus  Christ, 
and  this  fact  proves  that  he  was  not  a  Christian. 

The  Christian  Statesman  sa3's:  "It  is  not  on 
record  that  he  [Grant]  spoke  at  any  time  of  the 
Savior,  or  expressed  his  sense  of  dependence  on 
his  atonement  and  mediation." 

In  his  published  claims  Newman  went  as  far  as 
he  felt  that  he  could  go  with  safety.  To  assert 
that  Grant  was  a  Christian  in  the  evangelical 
Bense,  that  he  accepted  Jesus  Christ  as  the  divine- 
ly begotten  son  of  God,  would  be  so  manifestly 
false  that  he  knew  it  would  be  denied.  In  the 
cunningly  devised  statements  made,  which  meant 
one  thing  to  the  friends  of  Grant  and  another  to 
the  world  at  large,  he  effected  as  much  as  he  could 


THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.      351 

hope  to  effect,  the  general  recognition  of  the  claim 
that  Grant  was  at  least  a  nominal  believer  in 
Christianity. 

Newman's  description  of  General  Grant's  entry 
into  Heaven  is  quite  dramatic: 

"They  came  at  last.  They  came  to  greet  him 
with  the  kiss  of  immortality.  They  came  to  escort 
the  conqueror  over  the  'last  enemy'  to  a  coro- 
nation never  seen  on  thrones  of  earthly  power  and 
glory.  Who  came?  His  martyred  friend,  Lincoln. 
.  .  .  His  great  predecessor  in  camp  and  cabinet, 
Washington." 

From  a  rhetorical  standpoint  this  may  be  all 
right;  but  from  a  theological  standpoint  it  is  cer- 
tainly all  wrong.  It  must  require  a  vivid,  if  not 
a  perverted  imagination,  for  an  orthodox  parson 
to  see  two  Infidels  coming  from  Heaven  to  convey 
a  third  one  there. 

Adverting  to  his  death,  Newman  says:  "Who 
does  not  regret  the  death  of  such  a  man?  Heaven 
may  be  richer,  but  earth  is  poorer." 

Why  docs  he  express  this  in  the  potential  mood? 
Has  he  doubts  as  to  whether  Grant  was  permitted 
to  enter  Heaven  or  not?  Or  has  he  doubts  as 
to  the  existence  of  Heaven  itself? 

When  Grant  rallied  from  his  sinking  spell  In 
April,  Dr.  Newman  said:  "If  the  improvement  in 
his  health  continues,  the  General  will  soon  be  able 


352      THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT. 

to  go  to  bed  like  a  Christian  and  believe  there  is 
a  divine  Providence  behind  all  this." 

To  this  the  Sunday  Mercury  replied:  *'Does  the 
eloquent  preacher  intend  the  public  to  infer  that 
his  distinguished  patient  has  heretofore  gone  to 
bed  like  a  heathen  and  held  the  creed  of  Bob 
IngersoU  in  regard  to  Providence?" 

Grant's  health  did  not  continue  to  improve,  and 
so  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  he  never  went  to  bed 
like  a  Christian,  or  believed  there  was  a  divine 
Providence  in  the  case. 

On  the  same  occasion  Dr.  Newman  asked  him 
what  the  supreme  thought  of  his  mind  was  when 
death  seemed  so  near.  To  this  interrogatory 
came  the  prompt  answer  of  the  Freethinker:  "The 
comfort  of  the  consciousness  that  I  have  tried  to 
live  a  good  and  honorable  life." 

No  religious  cant  in  this.  No  consolation  for 
the  Christian  claimant  here.  Commenting  on 
Grant's  answer,  the  New  York  Independent  said: 

"The  honest  effort  'to  live  a  good  and  honorable 
life'  may  well  be  a  source  of  comfort  at  any  time, 
and  especially  so  in  the  hour  and  article  of  death: 
and  we  see  no  impropriety  in  referring  to  it  as 
such.  But  it  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  make 
such  an  effort,  or  such  a  life  even  though  the  best 
that  any  man  ever  lived,  the  basis  on  which  sin- 
ners are  to  rest  for  their  peace  with  God  and  their 


THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.      353 

hope  of  salvation.  Sinners  are  saved,  if  at  all, 
through  grace,  and  by  tlie  suffering  and  death  of 
Christ,  and  upon  the  condition  of  their  repentance 
toward  God,  and  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
This  is  the  gospel  plan  of  salvation  as  Christ  him- 
self taught  it  and  the  Apostles  preached  it. 
There  is  no  other  plan  known  to  the  Bible.  Great 
men  and  small  men  viewed  simply  as  men,  as  sub- 
jects of  the  moral  government  of  God,  and  as  sin- 
ners, stand  at  a  common  level  in  respect  to  their 
wants  and  the  method  of  their  relief;  and  thej 
must  alike  build  their  hopes  on  Christ  and  his 
work,  accepting  him  by  faith,  or  they  will  build  in 
vain.  ^A  good  and  honorable  life'  is  no  sub- 
stitute for  Christ." 

Newman  says  that  "Reason  was  the  dominant 
faculty  in  him."  This  is  true.  Reason  is  the 
dominant  faculty  in  Freethinkers.  When  reason 
is  unusually  strong,  faith  is  correspondingly  weak. 

Grant's  life  has  been  a  series  of  great  conflicts 
and  great  triumphs.  We  see  him  at  Fort  Donnel- 
Bon,  at  Shiloh,  at  Vicksburg,  at  Chattanooga,  in 
Virginia — one  unbroken  chain  of  victories.  An- 
other battle  remains — that  long  conflict  with 
death,  beginning  in  New  York  in  October,  1884, 
and  ending  at  Mount  McGregor  in  July,  1885. 
The  anxieties  of  a  thousand  battles,  the  agonies 
of  a  thousand  deaths  are  crowded  in  that  last  year 


354      THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT. 

of  life.  Thus  writes  one  of  bis  biographers: 
''Sitting  in  silence  and  almost  motionless,  hour 
by  hour  he  stared  in  the  face  of  the  coming  death 
of  untenable  pain,  and  with  it  were  bankruptcy, 
poverty,  disgrace,  calumny,  a  bitter  sense  of  pri- 
vate wrong,  and  of  public  misconception  and 
neglect"  (Stoddard's  Life  of  Grant,  p.  355). 

It  was  not  a  fight  with  death  alone.  During 
those  sad  months  he  fought  a  triple  fight;  a  fight 
with  death,  a  fight  with  adversity,  and  a  fight 
with  superstition.  Death  alone  triumphed.  In 
two  of  these  conflicts  he  was  victorious. 

Day  after  day,  at  his  bedside,  two  agents  of  the 
church  were  at  work,  the  sorrowing  wife  and  a 
priest  in  the  guise  of  "a  friend  of  the  family." 
Both  were  desirous  of  his  conversion;  the  one 
sincerely  laboring  for  what  she  believed  to  be  the 
eternal  welfare  of  her  beloved  and  suffering  com- 
panion; the  other  for  his  own  selfish  glory  and  the 
glory  of  the  church  he  represented.  "Great  men 
may  gain  nothing  from  religion,  but  religion  can 
gain  much  from  great  men,"  was  the  plea  he  ad- 
vanced when  rebuked  for  forcing  his  religious 
ministration  upon  the  pain-racked  General. 

If  ever  the  conditions  were  favorable  for  a 
death-bed  repentance  they  were  here.  It  is  in 
these  hours  of  anguish  and  gloom  that  the  mere 
skeptic  succumbs  to  superstition.     When  nature 


THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OP  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.      355 

seems  to  forsake  him  he  turns  to  the  supernatural. 
Had  Grant  been  a  mere  Nothingarian  with  lean- 
ings toward  the  church,  as  was  commonly  sup- 
posed, nothing  would  have  been  more  probable 
than  his  conversion.  But  the  good  sense  and  the 
strong  will  of  the  great  soldier  triumphed. 

There  was  a  touch  of  comedy  in  this  pathetic 
tragedy.  When  Grant  died  Newman  was  at 
breakfast  and  was  much  chagrined  when  he 
learned  that  the  curtain  had  fallen  on  the  last 
scene  during  his  absence. 

Describing  this  incident  the  New  York  Com- 
mercial Advertiser  says:  "About  7:15  o'clock 
on  the  morning  that  Grant  died  Dr.  Newman 
said  he  thought  he  would  go  over  to  the  hotel 
and  get  a  little  breakfast.  The  physicians  warn- 
ed him  that  a  change  might  occur  at  any  moment, 
and  that  he  had  better  not  go.  He  turned  to 
Henry,  the  nurse,  and  asked  his  advice.  Henry 
thought  the  general  would  live  for  an  hour.  So 
off  the  doctor  went  and  ate  his  breakfast.  In  the 
mean  time  Dr.  Sands,  who  had  left  the  cottage  at 
ten  o'clock  the  evening  previous  in  order  to  have 
a  good  night's  rest,  came  back  about  7:50,  just 
in  time.  Dr.  Newman  w^as  not  so  fortunate. 
After  breakfast  he  came  up  the  path  at  so  quick  a 
rate,  his  arms  waving,  that  he  was  sliort  of 
breath.     Dr.  Shrady  saw  him  coming,  walked  out, 


358      THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OP  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT. 

"In  many  of  his  orders  and  dispatches,  Grant 
devoutly  recognizes  the  providence  of  God,  and 
his  reliance  upon  it  as  being  the  chief  strength  of 
nations  and  men;  and  if  he  ever  swears,  the 
religious  world  may  be  certified  that  his  oaths  are 
in  the  same  category  with  those  of  my  Uncle  Toby 
and  of  Washington  at  Monmouth"  (Life  of  Grant, 
p.  314). 

1  man's  statements  concerning  Grant's  relig- 
ion appear  in  an  introduction  Avhicli  the  publish- 
ers of  Burr's  biography  of  Grant  had  him  write 
for  that  work.  Mr.  Burr  himself  does  not  claim 
that  Grant  was  a  believer.  Stoddard,  Dana,  and 
other  biographers  are  also  silent. 

In  Grant's  "Memoirs"  there  is  not  a  word  to 
indicate  that  he  reposed  the  least  faith  in  Chris- 
tianity. He  advocated  freedom  of  thought,  warn- 
ed his  readers  against  the  encroachments  of  sec- 
tarian influence,  and  criticized  the  churches  for 
their  sympathy  with  the  Rebellion.     He  says: 

"There  were  churches  in  that  part  of  Ohio 
w^here  treason  was  preached  regularly,  and  where, 
to  secure  membership,  hostility  to  the  govern- 
ment, to  the  war,  and  to  the  liberation  of  the  slaves 
was  far  more  essential  than  a  belief  in  the 
authenticity  or  credibility  of  the  Bible"  (Memoirs, 
Vol.  i.,  p.  36). 

His  last  letter  to  his  wife  has  been  cited  to 


THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.      359 

prove  that  lio  wns  a  ]>f'lir'ver  in  riiristianity.  This 
letter  affords  the  strongest  proof  that  he  was  an 
unbeliever.  Ilad  he  been  a  Christian  he  would 
have  proclaimed  it  in  this  letter.  The  consolation 
it  would  have  given  his  believing  wife  wouM  have 
compelled  him  to  avow  it.  lie  would  have  im- 
pressed it  upon  his  children.  There  is  not  a  word 
to  indicate  that  he  M'ished  his  children  to  become 
Christians — not  a  word  of  religious  advice.  Re- 
ligion is  utterly  ignored.  He  desires  his  children 
to  be  upright  and  honorable,  to  be  moral,  but  he 
does  not  desire  them  to  be  religious. 

On  the  morning  following  Grant's  death,  the 
New  York  World  contained  the  following: 

^'General  Grant,  as  it  would  appear,  had  no  set- 
tled conviction  on  the  subject  of  religion.  .  .  . 
Having  been  interrogated  during  his  illness  on  the 
question  of  religion,  he  replied  that  he  had  not 
given  it  any  deep  study,  and  M'as  unprepared  to  ex- 
press an  opinion.  He  intimated  that  he  saw  no 
use  of  devoting  any  special  thought  to  theology 
at  so  late  a  day,  and  that  he  was  prepared  to  take 
his  chances  with  the  millions  of  people  who  went 
before  him." 

General  Grant  will  live  in  history  rather  as  a 
great  soldier  than  as  a  great  statesman.  Yet 
there  is  much  in  his  career  as  a  statesman  to  ad- 
mire, especially  his  attitude  in  regard  to  church 


360      THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT. 

and  state.  No  president,  with  the  possible  excep- 
tion of  Jefferson,  has  occupied  more  advanced 
grounds  or  advocated  more  radical  measures  of 
reform  in  this  respect. 

Grant  is  the  only  president,  I  believe,  who  has 
in  his  official  capacity  contended  for  the  taxation 
of  church  property.  In  his  message  to  Congress 
in  1875  he  made  the  following  earnest  plea  for 
this  just  demand: 

"I  would  also  call  your  attention  to  the  import- 
ance of  correcting  an  evil  that,  if  permitted  to  con- 
tinue, will  probably  lead  to  great  trouble  in  our 
land  before  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
It  is  the  acquisition  of  vast  amounts  of  untaxed 
church  property.  In  1850,  I  believe,  the  church 
property  of  the  United  States,  which  paid  no  tax, 
municipal  or  state,  amounted  to  about  |83,000,000. 
In  1860  the  amount  had  doubled.  In  1875  it  it* 
about  $1,000,000,000.  By  1900,  without  a  check, 
it  is  safe  to  say  this  property  will  reach  a  sum  ex- 
ceeding $3,000,000,000.  So  vast  a  sum,  receiving 
all  the  protection  and  benefits  of  government 
without  bearing  its  proportion  of  the  burdens  and 
expenses  of  the  same,  will  not  be  looked  upon 
acquiescently  by  those  who  have  to  pay  the  taxes. 
In  a  growing  country,  where  real  estate  enhances 
so  rapidly  with  time  as  in  the  United  States,  there 
is  scarcelv  a  limit  to  the  wealth  that  may  be  ac- 


THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.      361 

quired  by  corporations,  religious  or  otherwise,  if 
allowed  to  retain  real  estate  without  taxation. 
The  contemplation  of  so  vast  a  property  as  here 
alluded  to,  without  taxation,  may  lead  to  se- 
questration without  constitutional  authority,  and 
through  blood.  I  would  suggest  the  taxation  of 
all  property  equally,  whether  church  or  corpora- 
tion." 

Equally  radical  and  pronounced  are  his  recom- 
mendations, in  the  same  message,  in  favor  of  the 
complete  secularization  of  our  public  schools. 

"We  are  a  Republic  whereof  one  man  is  as  good 
as  another  before  the  law.  Under  such  a  form  of 
government,  it  is  of  the  greatest  importance  that 
all  should  be  possessed  of  education  and  intelli- 
gence enough  to  cast  a  vote  with  a  right  under- 
standing of  its  meaning.  A  large  association  of 
ignorant  men  cannot  for  any  considerable  period 
oppose  a  successful  resistance  to  tyranny  and  op- 
pression from  the  educated  few,  but  will  inevi- 
tably sink  into  acquiescence  to  the  will  of  intelli- 
gence, whether  directed  by  the  demagogue  or  by 
priestcraft.  Hence  the  education  of  the  masses 
becomes  the  first  necessity  for  the  preservation  of 
our  institutions.  They  are  worth  preserving  be- 
cause they  have  secured  the  greatest  good  for  the 
greatest  proportion  of  the  population  of  any  form 
of  government  yet  devised.  All  other  forms  of  gov- 


362     THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT. 

emment  approach  it  just  in  proportion  to  the  gen- 
eral diffusion  of  education  and  independence  of 
thought  and  action.  As  the  primary  step,  there- 
fore, to  our  advancement  in  all  that  has  marked 
our  progress  in  the  past  century,  I  suggest  for 
your  earnest  consideration,  and  most  earnestly 
recommend  it,  that  a  constitutional  amendment  be 
submitted  to  the  legislatures  of  the  several  states 
to  establish  and  forever  maintain  free  ijublic 
schools  adequate  to  the  education  of  all  the  chil- 
dren in  the  rudimentary  branches  within  their 
respective  limits,  irrespective  of  sex,  color,  birth- 
place or  religion,  forbidding  the  teaching  in  said 
schools  of  religious,  Atheistic,  or  Pagan  tenets,  and 
prohibiting  the  granting  of  any  school  funds  or 
school  taxes  or  any  part  thereof,  either  by  legisla- 
tive, municipal,  or  otker  authority,  for  the  benefit, 
or  in  aid,  directly  or  indirectly,  of  any  religious 
sect  or  denomination.'^ 

His  speech  before  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee,  at 
Des  Moines,  in  1875,  was  one  of  the  noblest,  one  of 
the  bravest,  and  one  of  the  most  opportune  utter- 
ances ever  delivered  in  this  country.  In  this  speech 
he  said: 

"The  free  school  is  the  promoter  of  that  intelli- 
gence which  is  to  preserve  us  as  a  nation.  If  we 
are  to  have  another  contest  in  the  near  future  of 
our  national  existence,  I  predict  that  the  dividing 
line  will  not  be  Mason's  and  Dixon's,  but  between 
patriotism  and  intelligence  on  the  one  side,  and 


THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.     363 

superstition,  ambition,  and  ignorance  on  the 
other.  .  .  .  Let  us  all  labor  to  add  all  needful 
guarantees  for  the  more  perfect  security  of  FKEE 
THOUGHT,  FREE  SPEECH,  AND  FREE 
PRESS,  pure  morals,  unfettered  religious  senti- 
ments, and  of  equal  rights  and  privileges  to  all 
men,  irrespective  of  nationality,  color,  or  religion. 
Encourage  free  schools,  and  resolve  that  not  one 
dollar  of  money  shall  be  appropriated  to  the  sup- 
port of  any  sectarian  school.  Resolve  that  neither 
the  state  nor  nation,  or  both  combined,  shall  sup- 
port institutions  of  learning  other  than  those 
sufficient  to  afford  every  child  growing  up  in  the 
land  the  opportunity  of  a  good  common  school 
education,  unmixed  with  sectarian.  Pagan,  or 
Atheistical  tenets.  Leave  the  matter  of  religion 
to  the  family  altar,  the  church,  and  the  private 
schools,  (Supported  entirely  by  private  contribu- 
tions. KEEP  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  STATE 
FOREVER  SEPARATE." 

It  has  been  claimed  that  this  speech  was  aimed 
chiefly  at  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  It  was 
not.  It  was  directed  not  so  much  against  the 
avowed  enemy  of  the  public  school  as  against  its 
professed  friends,  who  would  destroy  its  useful- 
ness by  making  it  the  handmaid  of  Protestantism 
and  the  nursery  of  superstition.  Referring  to  this 
speech.  General  Sherman,  to  whom  Grant  confided 
his  intention  of  delivering  it,  says: 

"The  Des  Moines  speech   was  prompted  by  a 


364     THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GEANT. 

desire  to  defend  the  freedom  of  our  public  schools 
from  sectarian  influence,  and,  as  I  remember  the 
conversation  which  led  him  to  write  that  speech, 
it  was  because  of  the  ceaseless  clamor  for  set 
religious  exercises  in  the  public  schools,  not  from 
Catholic,  but  from  Protestant  denominations" 
(Packard's  "Grant's  Tour  Around  the  World,"  p. 
566). 

One  of  the  first  products  of  Grant's  pen  that  has 
been  preserved  is  a  letter  to  his  cousin,  McKinstry 
Griffith,  written  at  West  Point,  Sept.  22,  1839. 
With  the  exception  of  a  few  brief  lines,  the  last 
that  he  wrote  was  his  "Memoirs."  It  is  significant 
that  in  each  of  these — in  the  one  written  in  the 
first  jear  of  his  manhood  and  in  the  other,  written 
in  the  last  year  of  his  existence — there  is  to  be 
found  a  protest  against  ecclesiastical  domination 
of  our  government  and  its  institutions.  In  the 
letter  alluded  to,  referring  to  the  demerit  marks 
received  by  the  cadets,  he  writes: 

"To  show  how  easily  one  can  get  these,  a  man  by 
the  name  of  Grant,  of  this  State,  got  eight  of  these 
marks  for  not  going  to  church  to-day.  He  was  put 
under  arrest,  so  he  cannot  leave  his  room  perhaps 
for  a  month;  all  this  for  not  going  to  church. 
We  are  not  only  obliged  to  go  to  church,  but  we 
must  march  there  by  companies.  This  is  not  repub- 
lican"  (Brown's  Life  of  Grant,  p.  329). 

The  following  is  from  his  "Memoirs": 

"No  political  party  can,  or  ought  to,  exist  when 


THE  RELIGIOUS  OPINIONS  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.     365 

one  of  its  corner-stones  is  opposition  to  freedom 
of  thought.  ...  If  a  sect  sets  up  its  laws  as 
binding  above  the  state  laws,  whenever  the  two 
come  in  conflict,  this  claim  must  be  resisted  and 
suppressed  at  whatever  cost"  (Memoirs,  Vol.  i.,  p. 
213). 

Instead  of  being  a  believer  in  the  Christian 
religion  and  in  favor  of  Christianizing  our  govern- 
ment, as  many  suppose,  General  Grant  was  an 
unbeliever  and  a  zealous  advocate  of  state  secular- 
ization. 


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